Full text of "Amiga Shopper - Issue 04 (1991-08)(Future Publishing)(GB)"

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ADVICE 





TIPS 




HOT NEWS • NO GAMES! 














V 










o 







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1 



i 



i 




is Steinberg's Pro-24 all it's cracked up 
to be? A full report page 94 




Expert tutorials on C and Intuition explain 

the intricacies of the Amiga page 73 




Learn how to create 



< superbly photorealistic 
• .1 A ■ • / 



images with Activa's 
Real 3D system 

page 58 





Buying a modem? We put three popular 
models through their paces page 89 




Wordworth: More than just a word 



processor? Full test inside 



page 49 





Eleven pages of solutions to your 
problems start on page 15 



More coverage of free software than 
any other Amiga magazine 










ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1991 • YOUR SERIOUS AMIGA GUIDE 











The essential buyers' guide 
Find those budget bargains 
Ten top models evaluated 
We reveal the best buys 
9-pins and 24-pins tested 






What to buy, where to look, 

how to choose 




( 1 I I/l IX 



:ui 



uiure 

P UBLJSHING 



Your guarantee of value 








77HOA1 



77nnm 



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7A 



Over 50.000 have joined Special Reserve - the club which offers more for less with no obligation to buy. 



FREE 
CATALOGUE 

0219 600204 




We only supply members but you 
can order at the same time as joining 

£6.00 membership includes: 

NRG colour magazine with News Reviews & 
Graphics and featuring the adventures ol the Neu- 
Reai Gamers Cyberpunk street gang NRG is seni to 
all members bi-monthly and includes the Special 
Reserve top ten charts a release schedule of 
forthcoming games and a full catalogue of club otters 
7-Day Sales hot-lines 9am to 6pm weekdays 9am 
to 5pm Sat 10am to 5pm Sun. 0279 600204. 
Enquiries hot-lines dedicated to after-sales service 
Fast despatch from stocks of over 40.000 games 
Written receipt of order and we issue refunds on 
request m the event of any delay 
Best Prices and Best Service that's why over 
50.000 people nave joined Special Reserve. 







GrwndPnx 






y> ' ■! 






10.99 



ANNUAL UK MEMBERSHIP 

UK £6 00 EEC £8.00 WORLD £10.00 



w, 



Sega Gamegear 

+ FREE Mains Adapter 

+ FREE Special Reserve membership 



99.99 



COLUMNS 

OfUGON CRYSTAL 

G-IOC 

GOLDEN AXE 

MTCKEY MOUSE .. 



HUM 

1iM 

19 M 

19 98 

... 1980 



PSYCWCWORU) 



SUPER MONACO OP . 
WONDER BOY 

MAINS ADAPTOR 



IftJN) 

1999 

ies» 
ie n 

14B» 



69.99 



m 




Gameboy * Teths 

+ stereo headphones 

+ two player lead t batteries 

+ FREE Shockware Gameboy holsters 

• FREE Special Reserve membership 




ALLEYWAY 


1099 


NWItNIX^WUtCinUJf 


low 


BALLOON KtO 


lfi» 


OIX 


1 *niy 


BUfWRGHTtn DELUXE 


1099 


RADAH MISSION 


ift m 


CHESSfcUSTER 


iflW 


HI VI HCA n OArOfl 


M H 


DOUBLE DRAGON 


Ifcflt 




16 90 


DR MARIO 


ItM 


solar srm* 


IftJt 


GARGOYLES QUEST 


IMS 


nfRMAN 


ifttt 


GOLF 


iut 


SUPER MARIO LAND . 


ittt 


KNOCK 1H * BOO 


1AW 





mtt 


KWIRK 












279 600204 



WE ONLY SUPPLY MEMBERS BUT YOU CAN ORDER AS YOU JOM 

THERE IS A SURCHARGE Of MP PER GAME FOR TELEPHONED ORDERS 

(PLEASE PRINT IN BLOCK CAPITALS) 



Name 



Address 



Tel 




Postcode 

Computer 

PayatSpecial Reserve 
P.O. Box 847, Harlow, CM21 9PH 



Existing members please 
enter your Membership No. 

Special Reserve £6 UK, £8 EEC , £10 World 

PLEASE ENTER MEMBERSHIP FEE [f 



Hem 



Horn 



Item 



Item 



Software Prices itWudo UK or EEC Postage 

WocU software oroer* pjJJNNI «M CI 00 par nam. 

For mn-fioftwam itorre such as foystichs or War* (Asks 

please odd 10% EEC or 25% World for carnage 

Overseas orders must be p*Kl by crwM cirri 



AMSHOP 13 




Credit card issue/expiry date _ p _^__ 
CHEQUE/P.OyVISA/ACCESS^ASIERCAHD/SWITCH 



. 



6.99 



2.99 



7.49 



6.99 



10.99 



2.99 



AMIGA DISKS 

1 3D CONSTRUCTION KTT 31 

3OPO0L 7 

40 SPORTS BOMWQ U 

40 SPORTS CnvMG ™-_ 17 

6H ATTACK SUB 17 

AlOTAWMURd MEOI 

AOiD OUNQEON MASTER 
ASSISTANT VOUAC1 
AMODUNQEON MASTER 
ASSISTANT vtXLAft 2 

advanced destroys* a 

AFRKACOflPS 
AFTEPBUPHEfi 

alcatraz 
Iahmos 
amos (games' 

AMOS JO 

AMOtl 
AMI 



FERRARI FORMULA 1 
fEUML<*DS 



MJ 



49 



(OF 

of tH(»*™uocr 
. I* 

I SCHOOL t p* ** ot a*) 

=UN SCHOOId CM - 5-7 or 7+) 



FABASCV30I 



21 



GODS* 
OOLOENJ 
GAAMDI 
GRAVITY^ 

GREGI 
GULD1 



COTV 



CVWTM T SMpHT) COTV 1S49 

I BAT \\JBk SOFT) it m 

ISS JANE SEYMOUR 1ft St . 

.BAAL 199 

! BALLYHOO OWOCOM) 

BAMXT KJNOS OF ANCWiT CHMA ; 

BARDS TALE 2 

I BAflDS TALE 3 

BATMAN CAPEO CRUSADER 

BATTLE OF BWTAIN 

BATTLE SQUADRON 

BAf Tit SCAPES I 

A ARMADA; 

BEAST ? (WITH T-SttRT) 

II* I MAt Al 

BILLY THE WO 

B-H05 OF PHEV (1 MEG) 
UACKLAMP „ ,. 
RtAOC WARRIOR 



.(BUOGCTfl 



sn 

MfTCMH 
HOUYWOOOl 
MOUi 
HOME. 
MOUND Ofl 
HUNT FORI 
HUNTER , 
HYBRtS 

| i'l At 

K* « 

IMMORTJ 

IMPERIUM 



'(GREMJN) 

AJES 

(BUDGET* 7 

moN 19 

;(WFOCOM> 17, 

(DiGJTA, 20« 

a-.™ *4t 

roeeft ton 



POWERMONGER It 

POWERMONGER DATA DISK 1 It 4t 

POWERWORKS 37 9t 

PREDATOR? I74t 

PWCE OF PEABU ... l«9t 

PRO TEp##S TOUR? Ifttt 

PROTEXT W«WCESSOR V* _ 4MB 

OUCSTFORGtORVOMEO) »9t 

QUEST fOR GLORY 2 (1 MiO) 1MB 
QUESTRON?OB^ • *• 

RTYPE ft« 

RTYTCJ MOT 

RAUtOAD TYCOON (1 MEG} 22 <M 

FLMBA5EBALL? ItOT 

HENEGACC IEGCN LHTERCEPTOR 22 OT 
ROC DANGEROUS ft 9* 

RCKDANQEROU62 tfttt 

RttEOFTHEORAGONIIUEG) »49 

R060COP2COTV Iftft 
ROCKET RANGER COTV 7 «t 

RORKTSORTT istt 

PUESOFBttAOCWNTHWEG) 174t 

STUNFUPMER 14« 

SEARCH FOR THE KMQ »4t 

S£A5TAl_K£R(MFOCOM) 1099 

SECRET OF MONKEY ISLAND 1749 

SHADOW DANCER 17 49 

SHADOW OF TW BEAST 7 99 

SHADOWVWmORS 16 99 

SHEHUANM4 1ft 99 

SLENT SERVICE (SU6 SAI) Att 

SILKWORM (BUDGET) ft 49 

SWOTY A POPULOUS . Ifttt 
1 CITY ARCHTTECTURE DttK I 10 99 
ARCHITECTURE (MX 2 1D99 

rERHAINEDfTOR 1049 



RMEG^COTV ™ 



SKYFOX 
SORCG 

SPACl 

SPACE 
SPACE 
SPACEi 



juu uiiuttttt 



BLOOD MON|Y 

BLOOOWYCf 

BLOOOWpH DATA 01 SR 

Hint MA f 

aQMRTR M**iSlON DISK 

■PWTCDTV 

BUCKROGERS(Saq 

BUDOKAN 

CADAVtR , p 

CADAVER LEVELS THE PAY OFF 

CAPTIVE _ „. 

CARRIER COMMAND 

CASHBOC* COMBO 

CENTURION DfrENOCR OF ROME 

CHAMPION OF THE RAJ 
ICRAMPIONSOF KRYNNp MEG) 
| CHAOS STRKES BACK 

MEO^CDTV 

I OftPS CHALLENGE _ 

CHRONOOUCST2 

1^^^^^%tfP% T^^^^'V^ l lli. l l lttt^lttt"*tt*< 

CUJUOKMGOOMS 

CODENAME ICEMAN (1 MEG) 

| COHORT FIGHTING FOR 

ROMECOTV 

COLONELS BEOUEST (I MEOI - 
CONQUESTS OF CAKBOT (1 MEG) 
CORPORATION 
CORPORATION MISSION DISK 
CORRUPTION (IV9CR0LLS) 

CRACKDOWN 

CRICKET (1 MEG) 

CRIME OOESNT PAY 



6 40 iNRDfl iJf 



(BUDGET) 749 

!R2 649 

ST 3 (SCRRAJ COTV 2649 

9T 4(1 MEG) 2649 

IsWs* ■ ■ *....»*- llF.WI 

LL ^49 



CO IV 



17.49 



1&49 



-»49 



rrcAMti 

CF7DANT 

J KKANNl 

J NCKLAUS i 
J NICKLAUSI 
COURSE 
JNICKLAUS 
J NICKLAUS 
J. NICKLAUS 
JAMES VOHQ 
JAMES 
JET(S 

JMX1 

K-i 

KEYS 

KICK 

KICK OFF! 

BO OFF 

IOCKOFE1 

KICK 

KICK 

no 



INT i 



2-1 

ilC) 



0(i 



OESERTdMEG) 
■ DATA(1MEGI 
'90UASH 

IITEDGOLf A 

[1MEG) J 

ISES 

JRSES 

COURSES 



MEG) 



SPEE 
SPELL 

8PMDC£/Y 

SPIRIT OF, 

SPY 

ST* 

STARFUGKT 

STAROLiDER? 

STEU>R7( 

STORM ACROSS 

SUPER CARS 2 

SUPER HANG ON 






1ft 99 



RJPERMONAGOG 



****** * *i WP 

«99 

CAUBUR(IMEG) 19 99 
DM 1U9 

»f*^' ** ** t*ff ■ *j T i ■" 4W 

7 49 

1709 

(SSI) 2049 

**** 1#.IW 

699 
1MU 



FINAL WW 
GIANTS OF 
RETURN TOI 
WINNING TACTICS 



KMDT 

KINGS I 
NNGSI 
KINGS" 



SHOW 

. 2 W PROCESSOR 

4(1MEOl7iri 
6(1 MEG) 
LEGBO 



2t: 



149 



CRUISE FOR A COHPSE 

CRYSTALSO ARBOREA 

CURSE OF T« AZURE 

■OMX1MEG) - 

CUTT>«OATS (INFOCOM) 
CYBBCONt 

DAMOCLES* MISSIONS 1 A 2 
DAS BOOT (TK BOAT SUB SM» 
OEADUNE fBUOGET) 
0EATH KMGNTS OF KRY1M O «Gl 
DEATH TRAP 

DEFE N D ER OF TX CROWN CPTV 
0EJAVU2 

Of LUXE MUSIC CONSTR SET 
I0&UXEFIWT3 _* 



0CUTER06 

DEVPAC V7 (ASSEIflLER) 
DOCALC (SPREADSWET) 
DISNEY AMMAHON STUDIO 

| DRAGON BREED 
DRAGON SPMT (BUDGET) 

ORAKKMEN 

ORA.LER 

, fXJNGEON MASTER 1 1 1CG) COTV 
DYNASTY WARS 

E-MOTION ^„, 

ECO PHANTCA4S 

&JTE 

I ElWtA MISTRESS OF 

THE OARKI1 MEG)COTV ..^_ 
I ENCHANTER (BUOGET) 

ENCOUNTER 

EPIC m 

EYEOFHORUS 

EYE OF THE BEHOLDER 
In MEG) COTV 

rtSSfRKE EAGLE 2 [I MEG) .. 

Fit FALCON 
I Flft FALCON MISSION DISK 1 .. 

F If. FALCON MISSION DtttK 7 _. 

FIB INTERCEPTOR 

F 19 STEM TH FIGHTER 

\ 24 HE TAt IATOR mm*** 



6 99 

9 & 

1749 

IS 99 

1999 

74t 

M *- 

11JB 

749 

7» 

4&9B 

OTJI 

1990 

12 M 

4BOT 

26 99 

6T99 

| >- 



LA^T 

LEISURE 

LSRSUTT 

LisSURE 

LEMMWGS 

LIFE AND 

LOIBARDRAfl 

LOTUS ESPRIT 

Ml TA#* PLAT 

MAGKT1C 

(1MEG)(GUU) 

FISK 

MEGATRAVELi£R l (1 

MERCENARY 

I* RCHANT COLONY 

IfTAL MASTERS „„ 

METAL MUTANT , 

MCROPROSE SOCCER 

MLDMGHT RESLSTAMCE 

MOWNTER 

WG 29 FULCRUM 

MONSTER PACX1 
MOON BASE 



LARRY 1 (SIERRA) 
» : A 3(1 MEG) 
3(1 MEG) 



CHAU 16» 

1999 

COLLECTION 



Superoase FBR80NAL 2 
mVUN SPRFAfft*CET (I » 

SUPRB4ACY 

SWITCHBLADE? ... 16 99 

SWTV lr . 1799 

SWORDOFSOOAN 999 

TEAM SUZUKI 1699 

TEAMYANKEE 1999 

TEENAGE MUTANT HERO IURTIEI 1699 

tr* r AOLC T ,.-,., 1/ ^F 

TETWSCDTV 134t 

THE LOST PATROL ,., imn 

THEME PARK MYSTERY 449 
THREE STOOGES (ONEUftWARE) 749 

THUNOERBMDS 4 99 

THUNDEFUAWS 19 99 

|1ME A MAGIK ^LEVEL 9| 1199 

IpKI 16 99 

fiURNAMENTGOLF 1699 

t^pTACELJCAGT RALLY . Ifttt 
! VOL 2 (MENACE 

MB 7 ft 
fMOVL 3 (SPEED6AU, BLOOD 

YW)CKET RANGER) iStt 

fURBOCV 499 

COTV 1)49 

tVSPORTllU»FOOTBAU ' « 



il » 



YPHOONOFSTLEL 

A.TBM& 

WS 2 { 1 MEflft; UNIVERSAL 
UsL ITARY SkUUlBTOR ? 
VENUS 1>C aVVlAP COTV 

vwus .„ 

VIZ 

WAR GAME CONSTR SET 

1ZONE 



1 



!(1I 



MOONGMNE RACERS ,,.„, 

MYSTICAL - 

NAM ItfifrTS COTV 

WMYSEALS 

IftGHTSrtFT 

06TTUS (WITH T-SHWT) COTV 

OPERATION STEALTH 



4f t! 



OPERATION WOLF 
OVERRUN (1 MEG) (SSI) 
PANZA KOC BOJONG (1 MEG) 

PAWN (IsVSCflOLLS, 

PGA GOLF TOUR 

PHOTONPAWT 

PLATES 

PWNETWL1 (BUDGET) 

PLAYER MANAGER 

POLICE QUEST 2(1 

POOLOFl 

POPULOUS A 

POPULOUS iHBnijLD LANDS 

POWER I 



tHI (HArt)DHMN 
CHASE Ha 

lG)i 

It AM. 

1 FTPOT ROBOT 
^F*S. APB r KLAX) 
ER (BUDGET) 




WOLFPAQMlMEGl 
WONDERLAND (1 WG .,„„ 

rV^lW.-nHrV*(0 

PROCESSOR (1 MEG) 

B0CH13 
WORLD CLASS LEADERBOARO 
WRATH OF Tt* DEMON 



HNOMORPH 

XENON2.MEGABLAST 

KIPHOS 

XYBOTS (BUDGETS 

/out 

£%Jri9\ I (mAAit. I j 

ZO**2(BUOQET) 

ZOHK 3 (BUDOET) 



GAMES MARKED 'CDTV' WILL ALSO WORK ON A COTV PLAYER FITTED WITH A 3.5' DISK DRIVE 



CD's for CDTV 

ABUNFORHARNtV ,>4 49 

ADVANCE O Mil ITARY SYSTEMS 29 40 
ALL DOGS GOTO HEAVEN 3449 

AMERICAN H( HIT AGE DICTIONARY 4949 
AN1KAA1LDCOLOU*{INGBOOK 19 49 
BARNEY BEAR GOES TO SCHOOL 2949 
BASKETBALL 2949 

BATTLESTORM M 49 

CASE Of TW CAUTIOUS CONDOR 34 49 
ONDEHELLA 3949 

OASSK: BOARD GAMES 34 49 

COMPLETE WORKS OF 

SHAKESPEARE 3440 

DEFENDER OF THE CROWN -294t 
DMOKAUR FOR MIRE 1ft 4t 

DRVftUIWf SAM 



F 16 FALCON 41M9 

FRUITS. VEGETABLES A HERBS 34 49 

FUN SCHOOL 3 (2-5 YRS) 24 49 

HEATHER HTO HOME 3949 

HORSE RAC INC ; 2949 

HOUND OF THE BASKERV1LLE3 29.49 
ILLUSTRATED HOLY BIBLE 34 49 

INDOOR PLANTS 34 49 

WDOOR SPORTS ..._>~_*JB4t 
LTVENGUSH 344t 

MANY ROADS TO MURDER 2MB 

MIND RUN 2*M 

MUDPUOOLE 34 49 

MUSIC MAKER 34 49 

MYPAIN1 » 29.49 

NJNMF4JQN9CHOOLCOMK 1649 

OURHOUSE 3449 

PAPER BAG PRMCESS J*4t 

■ 



PSYCHO KBI 111 .■■)*<■ 

9C*RYPOtwsronH0inj«KiC(S »*t 

SHERLOCK HOLMES 44 4fl 

SIM CITY 2949 

TALE C BENJAMIN BUNNY 3B40 
THL NLW llAtWCS 

f I ECmiC COOKBOOK » 4B 

IME IAU Of PETER HAMMI JD 49 
THOWAS-S SNOW6LHT 
IMC TABLE OE 

m»SWES5POllT>CS 99 49 
194E TABLE Of SULNCC A 

■4NOVATION 30 49 

IHEESANOOMRU&S 14 49 

WOMEN IN MOTION rtl 4» 

WORLD VISTA ATLAS S4 49 

WRATH OF THE DEMON 29 49 

XENON? MEQABLAST »4» 




79 99 



AMIGA A500 COfctPUTER SCREEN GEMS 
. TV UOOOLATOft MOUSC, BAO( TO TT4E FUTXIRE 2. 
DAYS Of THUNDER BEAST 2. DELUXE PMNT 2 & 
JNlOHTBREfD M999 

PHILIPS M33 MK2 MONITOR 

COLOUR 6IERCO WITH AftBQA or COTV LEAD .'6999 

GOLDSTAR 4902 14" TV/MONfTOfl 
REMOTl CONTROL WTTH SCART 

AMIGA OR COTV TO SCART LEAD 
OJVFS MONT? OR QUALITY ON TV WITH 
SCAWRG8 INPUT 

AMIGA AS01 512K RAM UPGRADE 
TO 1 MEG GCNLNNE ITEM WITH a OCT 
ROCTEC AMIGA RAM UPGRADE 
(TO I MEG) WITH CLOCK 

AM4GA AS90 20 MEG HARO DRIVE 
AUTOBOOT WITH KlCKSTAnT. SOCKETS 
J FOR ? MEG Of RAM. SCSI INTERFACE 

ICUMANA EXTERNAL OtSK DRIVE 
I CAX3S4 3 5" SBOK FOR AM0 OR A2000 

1 ROCTEC SLIM DISK ORtVE 

FXIFRNAl i '.' AWi< ,A [>IS« OFOVE 
: ROCTEC EXTERNAL STEREO SPEAKERS 
I (WITH BUILT IN AMfl IHERSI FOR AMIGA 
COTV ATARI ST or ©M PC 3499 

ROCTEC MOUSE FOR AMIGA t 2 9» 



TV» 



a n 



^ 






B*ck row iff lo iiqtii 

COMPETITKJN PRO EXTRA GLO GREEN 

OUICKJOV JET FIGHTER JOYSTICK . 

OUICKSHO T I1 1 A TURBO ? JOYSTICK 

QUICKSHOTI30F PYTHON JOYSTICK 

TURBO BLASTER JOYSTICK 

COMPETITION PRO EXTRA GLO RED 

FrooT row krfl lo rlgW 

TURBO (RAPID HRL- ) JOYPAD . 

ROCTEC MOUSE FOR AMIGA 

OUICKSHOT1^7 STAHFIGHTEH REMOTE 

CONTROILER . IWO INFAREDX>VPADS 
OUICKSHO T 1 3BF MAVERICK 1 JOYSTICK 

\ OVwr il*ms not thown 

I COMPE 1 1 T ION PRO 5000 BLACK 

; COMPETITION PRO 5000 MEAN GREEN 

I COMPETITION PRO EXTRA COMBAT 

I COMPETTTrON PRO EXTRA CLEAR 

COMPETITION PRO STAR EXTRA 

STINGRAY HANDHELD JOYSTK* 

TOP STAR JOYSTICK 

FOUR PLAYER AMIGA/ATARI ST JOYSTICK 

AOAPTOR (FOR KICK OFF 2 ETC) 

MQUSE MAT 

NAKSHA MOUSE. BRACKET AND MAT <Aa»GA/ST) 

POPULOUS/FALCON LEAD (NULL MODEM) 
| OUST COVER FOR AMIGA (CLEAR PVC) 

OUST COVER FOR PHILIPS MONITOR 



13 49 

1399 

B99 

9 99 

999 

13 49 



1390 

10 90 

10 9 

1290 

1340 

KM 

13.90 

1999 



SONY 3,5" DS/DO 
D*SK» LABEL »p««ch 

21.99~for50 



[59p each 
99 lor 



CITIZEN SWIFT 9 COLOUR PRINTER 

FRICTION ft TRACTOR. 213 CPS36 NtQ. 
COLOUR 24 MONTHS WARRANTY INN 

aTl2£NSWI»^COlOL*1 PRINTER R9360N m 99 

PRINTER LEAD AfcNGA OR ST 999 

OLYMPUS 14* OPT1K LEAD GLASS 

ANTI HAOIATION ft REFLECTION FB.TER 74 99 

POWERWORKS SUITE 37.99 

I KINO WORDS 2 WORD PROCESSOR. 
MAXIPLAN PLUS SPREADSHEt T 
INFOFTU DATABASE • MAIL MERGE 






.v/ r 




599.99 




Commodore CDTV 

+ Remote Control Pad 

+ Hutchinsons Encyclopedia on CD 

+ Lemmings on CD 

+ FREE Ftoctec Disk Drive worth 53.99 

(plays Amiga disks marked 'CDTV" in list) 

+ FREE Special Reserve Membership 



i 




SHOPPING LIST 

This is cm alphabetically sorted, 
quick-reference list to everything in 
the issue. Just look for the relevant 
name of the software/ hardware 
or subject and it should be here. 
Some things are cross-referenced 
under more than one heading for 
ease of use. 






AmigaDOS 

AMOS 

Answers 

Business 

Buying Advice 

C 

Children 

Citizen 124D 

Citizen Swift 9 

Citizen Swift 24 







>:-:-:-;v:-:v;v 



t'iViWiVi 1 



Databases 
Dot-matrix printers 

DTP 

Education 
Epson LQ400 
Epson LQ550 
Epson 1X850 
Falcom modem 
Graphics 
Imagine 
ition 




. 



iri'iVAViVi'i'iVi . 



<¥£%:# - 



Learning 
letters 
Modems 
Music 
NEC P20 
News 
Next month 
OkiML380 
Paint packages 




, 





Public Domain 

Reader Ads 

Real 3D 

Real Things 

Sequencers 

Star LC24 

Star LC200 

Subscriptions 

Superbase 4 

Supra modem 

T E X 

User Groups 

Video 

Wordworth 



,■: ■ ■ 

. .. t x . 




85 
82 
15 
105 
116 
73 
99 
31 
31 

31 
89 

105 

31 
49 
99 
31 
31 
31 
89 

58 

65 
79 

99 

5 

89 

94 

31 

5 

130 

31 

119 

31 

94 
121 
114 
58 
58 
94 
31 
31 
62 

105 
89 

113 

110 

65 

49 



CONTACTS 

Editorial 

Stuart Anderton - Editor 

30 Monmouth Street, Bath BA1 2BW 

» 0225 442244 

or via the Amiga Shopper conference on CIX 

Advertising 

Margaret Clarke - Advertising Manager 

2nd Floor, Rayner House, 23 Higher Hillgate, 

Stockport SKI 3ER 

• 061-474 7333 
Subscriptions 

The Old Barn, Somerton, Somerset 
TA 1 1 7PY 

• 0458 74011 






Get the right printer 



31 



1 popular dot-matrix printers evaluated. Full test results 
and best buys revealed. 




Wordworth 



49 



Powerful word processor 




Real 3D 

Sophisticated 3D paint program 


58 


Real Things 

Animated clip art 


58 


Imagine 

3D animation program 


65 


Pro 24 

Professional MIDI sequencer 


94 


Superbase 4 

Graphical database system 


105 



I E X 



113 



Scientific typesetting program 




C Programming 


73 


Intuition 


79 


AMOS 


82 



AmigaDOS 



85 




The idea of free software is great, but how do 

you sort the wheat from the chaff? 

Turn to page 119 for Shopper's unique PD guide 





News 5 

Get up to date with the latest Amiga happenings 



Letters 

Hear what other Amiga owners have to say 



13 



Desktop Publishing 

Wordworth: word processor and DTP 


49 


Graphics 

Real 3D lets you create stunning images, plus 


58 

Real Things 


Subscriptions 

Get Shopper every month and get a free gift! 


62 


Video 

3D animation with Imagine 


65 


Communications 

Modems from Supra and Falcom tested 


89 


Music 

Steinberg's Pro 24 sequencer evaluated 


94 


Education 

A look at some of the learning programs on th 


99 

e market 


Business 

Part one of a detailed look at Superbase 4 


105 


User Groups 

Latest from groups around the country 


110 


Reader Ads 

Sell, sell, sell; buy, buy, buy 


114 


Buyers' Guide 

2D paint packages summarised 


115 



Buying Advice 

Our guide to making a safe purchase 



116 



i 




A 



■ 

1 




i 



Everyone has problems with their computer, 

and with the help of our team of 

acknowleged experts Amiga Shopper can 

solve them. In this issue there are 11 pages 

packed with help and tips on subjects like: 

SCART connections • video titling • Pascal • 

assembly language • printer fonts • viruses • 

KindWords • comms • and so much more 

Turn to page 15, and start learning! 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST l 991 




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THE SUPREME AMIGA PACK FOR GENERATIONS TO COME 

CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT (CPU) PLUS SOME GREAT SOFTWARE 



CBM 1084$ COLOUR MONITOR 



KEYBOARD AND MOUSE 



(or without monitor £649 99) 
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Beast II, Days of 
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md INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE 

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AMIGA 



E W S 



£100 cut from Class pack 



Buying Amigas for classroom 
use is now an even more 
attractive proposition as 
Commodore has made hefty 
£100 price cut to the Class of 
the 90s - First Steps package. 

With over 1 7,000 packs 
sold at the old price of £599, 
the company hopes that at 
£499 the Amiga will become 
yet more 'affordable and 



accessible to schools' and sell 
in even greater quantities. 

The contents of the 
package remain the same: an 
A500 with 1 Mb of RAM, TV 
modulator, an introductory 
video and eight software titles 
including a word processor, a 
multimedia filing system, a 
spelling package and Deluxe 
Paint IL Commodore sees the 



pack as providing a link 
between computer-based 
learning in the home and 
classroom, describing it as 
'ideal for children aged five 
and upwards'. 

There has been speculation 
that the price drop is a 
response to Atari's bundling 
of the ST in an education 
package called The Family 



Curriculum which sells for 
£399. Commodore was keen 
to deny this, saying that the 
new price was in line with 
recent changes in pricing 
policy across the entire Amiga 
range. If anything, the 
company sees Atari's move as 
a 'tremendous compliment' to 
its own, longer standing 
educational initiative. 



Editman offers 
video options 

Syntronix Systems is offering 
several hardware and 
software products for 
advanced Amiga-based 
video production. 

The Editman is an 
editing system which can 
control domestic VCRs and 
camcorders with an 
accuracy of a single frame. 
Insert and audio dub editing 
are available, and the 
system is mouse controlled. 
IFF files can be edited, and 
genlock support is offered. 
The Editman system normally 
costs £499 (exc. VAT), but is 
available for a limited 
period at £325. 

Also on offer Is a 
computer recording interface 
which enables Amiga 
graphics to be taped using 
theS-VHSor Hi8 systems, 
while avoiding the fuzziness 
which can result from using 
the composite video output. 
The company claims that the 
recording quality with the 
device exceeds that 
obtained using genlocks. 
The computer recording 
interface costs £249. 

Finally Syntronix offers 
an RGB digitising interface. 
The hardware accepts 
S (Y/C) signals for maximum 
quality. A version is 
available which can grab 
frames in real time. The 
digitiser costs £199.95. 
Syntronix* 0332 298422. 



NEWSH0UNDS 
WANTED 

We are always looking 
for Amiga related news 
stories, and we pay for 
the ones we print. Ring 
us on 0225 442244. 



Confusion reigns over Kodak compatibility 







by Cliff Ramshaw 

This time next year owners of CDTV should be 
able to view their family snaps on TV, 
according to an announcement from 
Commodore UK, but some confusion 
surrounds the subject. 

Using a system devised by Kodak called 
Photo CD, people will be able to take their 
films along to High Street bureaux and have 
them transferred on to a CD. The cost will be 
approximately £10 for 24 35mm pictures. 
Since there is room for up to 100 stills on a 
single CD, the price of putting extra pictures 
on to the same disc will be substantially less. 

There is, however, a degree of 
controversy, or at least confusion, as to 
exactly which of the current CD formats will 
be compatible with it. 

Philips has developed the hardware of 
Photo CD in conjunction with Kodak, and says 
that its CD-I system will be compatible with the 
standard. As a response to this, Commodore 
seems to have decided that CDTV will be 
made compatible as well. This announcement 
surprised Kodak, however, with a spokesman 
claiming he was "amazed at what they 
[Commodore] ore saying." He stated that no 
licensing agreements for Photo CD have been 
issued, and that the details of what such 
agreements would constitute are yet to be 
finalised. Neither, he added, have the 
technical specifications been released. 

Kodak is trying to launch a world-wide 
standard with Photo CD, so it is obviously in 
the company's interest to license it out to as 
many third-party hardware manufacturers as 
possible. Even if no papers have been signed, 
it is certain that Commodore and Kodak have 
been talking. 

Equally, Photo CD compatibility is seen as 
an important plus point by Commodore for 
CDTV. Steve Franklin, managing director of 
Commodore UK, said "CDTV is bringing the 




Photo CD: family snaps on a disc. 

world of multimedia to consumers and 
compatibility with Photo CD will be a vital 
component in this movement.* - 

But this component is not quite in place. In 
response to allegations from Philips that CDTV 
simply does not have the technical capability 
neccessary to deal with Photo CD, 
Commodore's head of public relations, 
Andrew Ball, admitted that it may require a 
"little more than is currently in a CDTV box." 
This addition, which may be in the form of an 
upgrade or a plug-in smart card, will be 
necessary to give CDTV the 24-bit ,16-million 
colour display required by Photo CD. Because 
the hardware of the CDTV is based on an 
Amiga it is only capable of displaying 4,096 
colours, not enough to display o truly 
photorealistic image. 
Commodore UK » 0627 770 088. 



Buy one, 
get seven 

free! 

A new deal is now available 
for users of WordPerfect in 
educational institutions. 
Seven licences will be given 
free with every copy bought, 
allowing seven copies of the 
software to be made and 
used around the site. 
Additional keyboard 
templates will be sent on 
receipt of a registration form 
from the users. 

This scheme, which is 
endorsed by CHEST (the 
Combined Higher Education 
Software Team), replaces 
WordPerfect's previous, 
discount-based educational 
scheme, although the offer 
for individual purchases by 
student and staff still stands: 
a hefty discount of between 
80 and 90 per cent. 
Interested individuals should 
contact the information 
services department of 
WordPerfect UK « 0932 
850 500. 

Otherwise, copies of 
WordPerfect along with the 
licence agreement are 
available from the 
distributor, SDL *r 081 309 
0300. Unfortunately, 
additional copies of the 
documentation have to be 
purchased separately. The 
manual costs £20; the 
tutorial-style Work Book 
costs £13. 



WIN A PRINTER! 

Turn to page 1 1 
for details 




AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 » AUGUST 199 



5 



AMIGA 



E W S 








1 6-bit show set for success 



Big crowds are expected for the 
16-bit Computer Show. 



Computer junkies in their tens 
of thousands will be 
converging on Hammersmith, 
London on the 1 2th July for 
me International 16-Bit 
Computer Show. The show, 
which is the fourth of its kind, 
caters for Amiga, PC and ST 
users in areas ranging from 
home entertainment through 
to business. 

The last show had some 
21,000 visitors, with over 
1 50 companies exhibiting. 



The organisers hope this one 
will be an even greater 
success. Already 1 60 
companies from Europe and 
North America have booked 
space, and 50 new products 
are expected to be making an 
appearance. Attending 
companies include GFA Data 
Media, Pandaal, Surface UK 
and Precision Software. 

As well as manufacturers, 
user groups and many 
computer suppliers will also be 



exhibiting. The show will 
provide an excellent 
opportunity to see the latest 
developments, try out intended 
purchases and buy. 

The show will be held at 
the Novotel in Hammersmith. 
Entry on the door will cost £5, 
or advanced tickets for £3 can 
be purchased from the ticket 
hotline » 0726 68020. 

You can read a full report 
from the show in next month's 
Amiga Shopper. 



Keep your 
computer 
clean with a 
sticky rug ! 



For users worried about 
dust invading their 
computer's delicate 
parts, Brown, Kemp & 
Company may just 
have the answer. 
Takmats come as a 
stack of tiles, each with 
an adhesive surface for 
collecting dust, and can 
be placed in dust-critical 
areas. When one layer 
is clogged up, it can be 
peeled away to leave 
another fresh sticky 
layer beneath. 

The mats come in 
two forms. Super Dust 
Absorbency (or SDA) 
mats have 36 layers 
held in a strong 
surround. A 6-foot x 4- 
foot mat costs £77.87; 
a 4-foot x 4-foot mat 
costs £32.25. 
Alternatively, the Low 
Profile (LP) mats costs 
£171.55 for a pack of 
four, each with 30 
layers. These are ideal 
for clean hard surfaces, 
and because, the 
company explains, they 
are so thin tea trolleys 
can pass over them 
with no jolting. 

Takmats are 
distributed by Brown, 
Kemp & Company « 
081-858 8657. 




Commodore has developed on upgraded 
C64 which bridges the gap between the 8-bit 
machine and the Amiga. 

Given a working title of the C65, the 
machine has already been sent out to software 
developers for testing, although Commodore 
denies that it has any immediate plans to 
release it. 

Like the C64, the new computer is based 
on the 6502 microprocessor but its graphics 
have been upgraded to be capable of 
displaying the 4,096 colours of the Amiga 
palette. Additionally, the C65 will be able to 
display standard Amiga IFF files, and with its 
3.5-inch drive transferring graphics should 
present no problems. 

Despite these compatibilities, the C65 
firmly remains an 8-bit machine, and 
Commodore is keen to stress that it does not 
see the machine as an 8-bit Amiga, since it 
has no blitter or other specialist chips. 

The machine will be able to run existing 
C64 software, although without a cassette 
interface or the C64's 5.25-inch disk drive, 



manufacturers will have to repackage their 
products. Given the difficulty Commodore has 
had persuading developers to support the 
C64's cartridge facility, the introduction of yet 
another format into the declining 8-bit market 
is unlikely to be greeted with enthusiasm, 
perhaps explaining Commodore's 
ambivalence about launching the machine. 

Quoted in the trade journal CTW, 
Commodore's retail sales manager Kelly 
Sumner said: "It is a product which has been 
developed, but at the moment we have no 
plans to release it. We have a very good line- 
up and it would be ridiculous to bring in a 
product that would compete with the Amiga 
and C64. It will definitely not see the light of 
day this year." 

However, Commodore has a policy of 
reviewing hardware product launches every 
six months, so there could be a change of 
heart after Christmas. 

With any launch so far away, pricing is a 
matter of speculation, but informed sources 
claim that £199 would be an ideal level. 



Stand-alone toaster pops up 



Already hailed as a 
revolution in video work in 
its Amiga peripheral 
incarnation, the Video 
Toaster is now available in 
the US as a stand-alone, 
desktop system. 

Professional quality 
video effects such as 
overlays, fades and wipes 
can now be produced on a 
system costing $3,995. 
Equivalent systems, as used 
by MTV and American cable 



networks, cost in the region 
of $ 1 00,000. 

The stand-alone Toaster 
is based around an Amiga 
2000, with the addition of a 
52Mb hard disk. Users will 
also need two composite 
video monitors, a video 
recorder with single frame 
recording ability (for the 
creation of 3D animations), 
and a Time Base Corrector 
for any video sources used. 
As yet, there is no PAL 



version of the Video 
Toaster available for use in 
Europe, although it must 
only be a matter of time 
before NewTek becomes 
aware of the potential 
market size on this side of 
the Atlantic. 

Amiga Shopper 
currently has a Video 
Toaster in its possession. 
Expect a review very soon. 
NewTek tr 010 1 913 
354 1146. 



Tap into 
the tape 

Deluxe Paint III is widely 
regarded as the best Amiga 
point package available, but 
its wealth of features and 
thick manual have left many 
in a state of confusion. Now 
those people can get the 
best from this package with 
The Deluxe Paint III Tutorial, 
a video from Video One. 

The video is aimed at 
those who already consider 
themselves familiar with 
DPaint, rather than the 
complete beginner. It covers 
topics such as smooth 
animation, text in 
perspective, marbling and 
shining chrome effects. 

The video is available 
for £19.99 from Video One 
■ 041-552 7865, and is 
the first in a planned series 
of videos designed to help 
Amiga software users learn 
about how to use their 
equipment. 




The stand-atone Toaster. 
'A revolution In video work* 



6 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1991 



AMIGA 



E W S 



Accessories make the CDTV into a computer 



News is beginning lo break 
of 'accessories' for 
Commodore's fashionable 
machine of the moment, the 
CDTV. 

The Commodore 
Dynamic Total Vision, 
essentially a CD player 
linked to an Amiga 500 
without the keyboard, is 
being marketed as a 
consumer product in no way 
connected with computers, 



hence the need to describe 
add-ons for it as accessories 
rather than peripherals. 

The first of these 
accessories is likely to be an 
infra-red mouse which, 
because it has no tail, is 
being called the 'hamster'. 
Also in the pipeline is an 
infra-red trackerball (with 
joystick ports), and an infra- 
red keyboard (surprise, 
surprise). Prices have yet to 



be confirmed, but the 
products should be on the 
market by September. 

In addition. Commodore 
hopes to release a 
networking system so that 
groups of CDTVs can be 
linked together for classroom 
use. CDTV users will be able 
to add genlocks to their 
machines, and credit<ard 
sized memory wafers. Jhe 
latter will have a capacity of 



up to 5 12K, either ROM or 
RAM, so they can be used 
both for holding application 
software and for saving user 
preferences, game positions 
and so on. 

A floppy drive should 
also be available by the end 
of the year. With this and a 
keyboard, owners of CDTV 
will be able to use it just like 
an A500. A basic CDTV 
system costs £599. Adding a 



keyboard and disk drive wi 
almost certainly add onother 
£100 to the price. Since an 
A500 currently costs 
£329.99 and the price of a 
CDTV upgrade for the Amiga 
is expected to be around 
£300, buying a CDTV plus 
assorted infra-red goodies 
looks unlikely to be a cost- 
effective decision. 

Commodore UK » 0627 
770 088. 



Dentists 
learn the 
drill from 
an A3000 



Amigas may soon help 
to lessen the pain of 
root canal fillings. An 
interactive presentation 
has been developed at 
the children's 
department of Kings 
College Dental Hospital 
to help undergraduates 
study the intricacies of 
root canal therapy 
without having to touch 
a patient. 

The program, 
snappily entitled 
Endodontics for the 
Deciduous Dentition 
uses text, scanned 
pictures and X-rays, 
together with Amiga 
generated animation, 
diagrams and sound to 
teach students the 
techniques involved. 

The developers of 
the system are Peta 
Smith and Andrew 
Gould, who hope it will 
become an invaluable 
teaching aid. The 
computer is being used 
alongside conventional 
lectures and 
demonstrations. 

The system was put 
together on a 25MHz 
A3000, with JX- 100 
and JX-300 scanners 
and the Audio Engineer 
used for input. The 
software was prepared 
using CanDo from 
Innovatronics, Deluxe 
Paint 3 and The Art 
Department. 



Amiga raises money 

from hospital TV ads 



by Karl Foster 

An enterprising Amiga-based desktop 
video scheme has raised thousands of 
pounds for a Welsh hospital. 

Since January this year patients at 
Morriston Hospital, Swansea, have been 
treated to local news and health 
programs by Morrivision, the hospital's 
voluntary television service. 

The programs are put together with 
the help of an Amiga 2000, and profits 
made from advertising charges on the 
network are helping to boost the 
hospital's funds. 

Morrivision member Norman Harris, 
who also runs the Swansea-based 
computer graphics company Galaxy 



Graphics, said the Amiga is the ideal 
tool for the job. "We use it mainly for its 
graphics capability and, for what we're 
doing, it works very well." 

He said the machine comes in to its 
own when putting together TV adverts 
for local firms, for which the old stalwart 
paint package DPaint III is pressed into 
service, along with Innovision's video 
titling package Broadcast Titler. 

Hardware-wise, Morrivision uses 
low-band U-Matic video and on A2000 
plus 5Mb RAM with 40Mb Quantum 
hard drive, linked to a Rendale 8802 
genlock. 

Morrivision » 0792 703437 
Galaxy Graphics w 0792 297660 




A Welsh hospital is using an Amiga 
to produce graphics for its patients' 
television service. Broadcast Titler 
and DPaint create advertisements 
which pay for the channel. 



Dataflyer hard disks take off 



Trtlogic has introduced a 
range of hard disk drive 
controllers and hard disks 
going under the banner of 
Dataflyers'. 

The SCSI (Small 
Computer Systems Interface) 
controllers allow any hard 
disk which uses this industry- 
standard system to be 
attached to either an A500 



or internally to an A2000 or 
A 1500. 

Trilogic supplies the 
controllers complete with 
NEC hard drives in 
capacities of 56Mb and 

1 30Mb. The NEC drives 
have an access time of 25ms 
and a read/write speed of 

1 .5 megabits per second. 
All of the disks ore auto- 



parking, and they have a 
slim 25mm profile. 

All have a two year 
guarantee. Prices are 
£369.99 for the A500 
56Mb drive, £599.99 for 
the A500 130Mb drive, 
£324 for the A2000 56Mb 
and £499.99 for the A2000 
1 30Mb. 
Trilogic* 0274 691 1 15 



Pirates scuppered 

The fight against software piracy continued 
apace this month with raids across the 
country. FAST, the Federation Against 
Software Theft, made 1 6 swoops on the 
unsuspecting buccaneers in the first week of 
June alone. 

Some 9-10,000 leisure titles were seized, 
with 5,000 of these being taken during a 
single raid in Cardiff. 

The rest of the haul was taken after 
impromptu visits made by FAST at Redcar 
races and in Humberside and South Wales. 



DIARY DATES 

July 12-14: 16-Bit Computer Show, 
Novotel, Hammersmith, London, 
Westminster Exhibitions tr 081-549 
3444. 

August 1 : Next issue of Amiga 
Shopper in your newsagent. 

September 5-8: European Computer 
Entertainment Show. Earls Court, 
London. EMAP » 071-404 4844 



Correction 

We would like to 
point out that in the 
news story last 
month, 'Still video 
moves in on the 
Amiga', there was an 
omission. In order to 
transfer pictures to an 
Amiga, the camera's 
disks have to b<- 
placed in an RV321 
Player unit (costing 
£1,639.12) which is 
connected to the 
Amiga's serial port 
via an IAV32 
Interface Unit 
(£464.12). The 
interface software 
costs £229.12 from 
Computerised 
Training Systems, 
tr0724 281 037. 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1991 



7 



AMIGA 



E W S 



Amiga gets a helping hand 



by Dave Golder 

An Amiga-driven scale replica of a real 
industrial robot has been launched into 
the education market. 

The Alfred Arm from Think Limited is 
a fully articulated robot arm just a 
couple of feet high which can emulate 
all the actions of the full sized Mars and 
R200 production line robots. It has six 
axes of movement, each of which con 
be individually controlled from the 
Amiga. 

The accompanying software has 
been specially designed to make it as 
easy to leorn as possible, using slider 
switches and bold icons. It allows you 
to build up simple programs, in a 
process called datalogging, to drive the 
arm through a continuous cycle of pre 
set motions. 

Th« company reckons that 
mastering the arm takes only a few 
minutes so that schoolkids do not spend 
ages just learning how to get it to move. 



Basic in 
your sites 

Schools and universities 
using Amigas as part of their 
computer studies courses will 
now have the opportunity of 
obtaining site licences for 
GFA Basic (reviewed in 
Battle of the Basic, Amiga 
Shopper issue 3). 

There are two deals 
available, either with or 
without manuals. After an 
initial purchase of the 
interpreter at the standard 
price of £50, ten further 
copies, including manuals, 
can be bought at 50 per 
cent discount. Any copies 
bought thereafter will be at 
80 per cent discount. 

Alternatively, by buying 
two copies (both with 
manuals) at the full price, an 
educational establishment 
will be able to buy a 
minimum of ten more 
(without manuals) at 90 per 
cent discount. 

These deals, hopes 
GFA, will help 
establishments with 'ever 
reducing budgets' and an 
'increasing demand for 
more advanced technology'. 
As a side line, it might also 
help to sell a few more 
copies of GFA Basic. GFA 
Data Media UK « 0734 
79494 1 . 





Amiga add-on automaton. 

It is intended to be used in projects to 
help develop problem solving and 
analytical skills. 

Priced at £360 for educational 



purchasers ( or £399 to Joe Public) The 
Alfred Arm is, according to Think 
Limited's Ian Black, about one third of 
the price of similar robot packages that 
are currently available. 

A conveyor belt (£230), rotary 
table (£150) and linear slide (£290), 
which can be controlled from the same 
software to work in conjunction with the 
Arm for more complex set-ups, are also 
available from the company. 

The system will be released on 
other computers soon, but the company 
chose the Amiga as the machine on 
which to launch the Arm. 

This decision followed a market 
survey commissioned by a large 
Norwegian training organisation. It 
predicted that there would be a 
demand for up to 4,000 of the robots a 
year in Europe if it were released for 
the Amiga, far more than any other 
computer. 
Think Limited » 021-384 4168. 







Prizes are once again up for 
grabs at this year's 
Animation Competition, 
organised by the Amiga 
Centre Scotland. 

Sponsoring companies 
(as yet unspecified) will be 
offering hardware and 
software products to those 
who produce the most 
colourful, weird, wonderful 
and humourous entries. 

As well as material gain, 
the winning entrants will 
have their work on display to 
the public as part of the 



Animation Exhibition. The 
exhibition will run from the 
2 1st to the 28th of August, 
coinciding with the 
Edinburgh Festival. An 
additional feature of the 
exhibition will be an 
animation workshop where 
anyone can try their hand at 
animation. 

The competition is open 
to all Amiga users, 
worldwide. Entries should be 
on floppy disk or PAL video 
tape, and accompanied by 
the entry form printed below. 




One of the winners from 
last year's contest. 



n 



NAME; 



| ADDRESS; 

I 



PAL VIDEO TAPE 



I 
I 

I 

I 

| SOFTWARE USED 

I AGREE TO ABIDE BY THE COMPETITION RULES 



TEL. NO: 

FORMAT OF ENTRY 

3.5-INCH FLOPPY DISK 

MODEL OF AMIGA 

DETAILS OF PERIPHERALS ADDED 



I 
I 

L 



SIGNED DATE 

The closing date for entries is 31 July. The Amiga Centre Scotland « 031 557 4242. 



1 
I 
I 
I 
I 
I 
I 
I 
I 
I 

J 



Printer 

power 

Prospective printer 
purchasers already confused 
by the plethora of options 
available will be pleased to 
here of another entering the 
market. The DL900 from 
Fujitsu is a 24-pin dot-matrix 
model, offering a column 
width of 1 10 characters (at 
10 characters per inch) or 
1 32 characters (at 1 2 cpi) at 
a resolution of 360x360 
dots per inch. 

The printer supports 
three emulation modes: 
Fujitsu DPL24C plus, IBM 
and Epson. As readers of 
Amiga Answers will be 
aware, this is a valuable 
asset. As further assurance 
that it will work with an 
Amiga, it is bundled with a 
number of printer drivers 
and a set-up program called 
DLMENU. 

Fujitsu hopes the DL900 
will aid its plans for 
expansion in the small 
computer market. To this 
end, the DL900 has been 
'designed to fit the 
parameters of desktop use', 
presumably meaning that it 
will fit on a desk. 

The Fujitsu DL900 will be 
distributed by Midwich 
Thame (» 0379 644 131) 
and Zygal Dynamic (» 0869 
253 361) for a suggested 
price of £351 .33. 



Big screen 

Amiga users involved with 
desktop publishing, software 
development and business 
will be interested in a new 
monitor from Hitachi. The 
20MVX is a 20-inch, high- 
resolution (up to 1,280 
pixels horizontally by 1 ,024 
vertically) colour monitor 
costing £1,874.13. 

It is mounted on o till 
and swivel base and has a 
flat, glareresistant screen. It 
connects to an Amiga via a 
9-pin D-sub cable which must 
be purchased from a third- 
party supplier. Note that if 
you wish to use the monitor 
to display interlaced 
graphics, then a flicker fixer 
of some description will be 
needed. 

The monitor is available 
from Hitachi New Media « 
081-849 2092. 



8 



AMIGA SHOPPER # ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1991 



You deserve the best ! 

Now you can get the best... with PEN PAL! 



A word processor with immense power to deal with most 
situations and... it includes a Database! It's all so easy to use, 
you probably won't need to refer to the extensive 250 page 
manual too often. 

Whilst working, you can open up to four documents 
simultaneously (memory permitting), search and replace; cut 
copy and paste; check your spelling with a 100,000+- word 
dictionary. You can import your favourite IFF/HAM 
graphics, from programs such as DPaint II or Clip Art in 
various sizes and colours. You can auto- 
matically flow text around graphics in any 
Workbench compatible font (there are over 
200 available styles), in different sizes and 
colours to suit your design... even as you type! 
All this from a word processor and 
Much Much More! 



ftnftl 



k 







As you can see, this is not just any ordinary word 

processor! Full Page View with position, edit and creation 

of graphic objects. Mail Merge using die built in database 

and forms designer. Creation of templates lor complex 

reports, into which the database can be merged. Operating 

with 32 fields per record, and 32,(XX) records per database 

with a fast sort of 10CX) records in less than 

5 seconds this is a real database. 

Pen Pal requires an Arnica 5(X)/ 1 5(X)I2(XX) 

at 3(XX) with a minimum ttj I megabyte 

available memory 



ri 



v* 




WV 



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Pen Pal 

When...you deserve the best! 

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."...its jiandling of graphics is unsurpassed: 

Pen Pal is (he only program 1 tested thai will 

automatically wrap text around graphics..." 

Amiga World. .Jul '90 

."..without beating around the bush Pen Pal is 
very special.." - "There is little to fault Pen Pal 
and it deserves to do well." 

imiga Format.. JMc. *90 



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the Graphic Capabilities within the Word Processor. Having 
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EDITORIAL 



SAY HELLO, WAVE 

We're making a few changes 
here at Amiga Shopper, with two 
new faces joining the team as 
two old faithfuls drift slowly into 
the sunset... 




SO IT'S GOODBYE FROM... 





If my departure from the 
magazine seems rapid, let me 
reassure you that the reason 
I'm happy to venture into 
pastures new is that you have 
already turned this magazine 
into a huge success. The new 
team members are very 
experienced and will continue 
to give you the best magazine 
anywhere for the Amiga. 

Bob Wade 

Well folks, this is it (sniff), the 
last issue of Amiga Shopper I'll 
be working on (sob). It's been 
a great show, you've been a 
great audience and I'd like to 
leave you with this little 
thought: there are more things 
to be found in heaven and 
Earth than you've got on your 
hard disk. Keep warm and 
don't eat anything poisonous. 

Karl Foster 



AND HELLO FROM... 




I'm Stuart Anderton, the new 
editor. If you have a very long 
memory you might remember 
me from ST Amiga Format, a 
fine upstanding magazine. 
More recently I've been 
working on Shopper's sister 
title New Computer Express. Of 
an evening I like to bore 
everyone with trivia questions 
in the pub, just like Bob really... 

Stuart Anderton 

I'm the new production editor, 
so I won't be doing much 
actual writing for the magazine 
- which is probably good for 
all concerned. Our contributors, 
however, will soon get used to 
my honeyed tones... Of an 
evening I like to ignore Stuart 
and get absolutely plastered 
(Boddingtons or Michelob, if 
you're buying). 

Ian Wrigley 



LETTER FROM THE NEW EDITOR 

Dear readers, 

First of all, a confession. I am not an Amiga expert. I know a fair bit about 
the machine, having worked on Amiga-related magazines since 1 989, but 
when it comes down to it I know about as much as the average user. So why 
on earth, you might well ask, are you editing Amiga Shopper, Britain's 
premier magazine for people who are serious about their machines? 

Well the answer is simple. An editor's job isn't to know lots about the 
Amiga; that's Cliff Ramshaw, our technical expert's department. My job is to 
do two things. First, to find out what you want from Amiga Shopper what 
information you need, and how you want it presented. And second, to find 
the people with that knowledge, get it down on paper and out to you in the 
magazine. 

Easy, eh? Well, no actually. The second part is simple enough; here at 
Shopper we have a comprehensive panel of experts in all areas of Amiga 
activity, ond o skilled production team of Ian and Jaquie who can translate 
their thoughts into the printed word. It's the first bit that's difficult; finding out 
what you want. 

Many of you were good enough to fill out the questionnaire in the first 
two issues, so I hove a fair idea about how old you are on average, and 
which model of Amiga you own. But to really get Amiga Shopper working 
for you I need to know what you want, and that means you putting finger to 
keyboard and writing to me. This isn't an idle request; things really do get 
done as a result of readers' letters. For instance in the last week I had three 
separate letters asking about using the Amiga in amateur radio work. 
Therefore in the coming months you will find features on using the Amiga in 
amateur radio. 

So if you want a series on Basic, or setting up a database for stamp 
collecting, or writing collision detection routines in assembler, or connecting 
up a MIDI keyboard or anything, get it down on paper and straight to me. 
Then t can do my job better and get a huge pay rise at the end of the year, 
and you can mould Amiga Shopper into the Amiga magazine you always 
wanted but just couldn't find. Get writing. £ j^, /• . , 



The AS ratings explained 



You may recognise the Checkout box 
on the right os the usual format for 
our rating of products under review. If 
you've been wondering how the 
system works, then here's how 
everything is calculated. 

Because we review so many 
different types of program and 
hardware, a single group of ratings is 
not flexible enough to assess all the 
aspects of each product. Thus the 
rating categories are different for 
each review, although things like 
Documentation and Speed will nearly 
always be there. 

Another important aspect is the 
weighting given to each rating 
category to end up with the final 
mark out of 100. Price is one of the 
most important ratings, but others will 
vary considerably. For instance, 
compatibility accounts for many of 
the marks for a PC emulator and 
strength of construction or reliability 
will be a big score for mice and other 
accessories likely to take a beating. 

Marks given in the Checkout box 
always add up to a value out of 100 
and, although this is a somewhat 
artificial indicator of the quality of 




Understand our scoring system. 

software or hardware, it does allow 
comparison between similar products. 
The thing to bear in mind is that we 
aren't dealing with games - a 
relatively low mark does not mean 
you shouldn't buy a product; it's a 
comparative indicator that takes into 
account many different factors. In all 
cases, you should base your buying 
decision on whatever factor is the 
most important to you, be it speed, 
price, reliability or any one of a host 
of features that can only be detailed 
in the full review and not in a single 
rating. 



10 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1 99 1 



COMPETITIO 








he Citizen Swift 9 is a 
highly acclaimed nine-pin 
dot-matrix printer. It is a 
compact, tidily-designed 
machine, capable of producing 
excellent quality text and graphics. It 
comes with Times, Sans Serif and 
Courier fonts in a variety of sizes 
from 10 to 20 pitch, but of course the 
Amiga can drive it to use any font at 
any size. It can emulate an Epson, 
ensuring total compatibility, and its 
on-board 8K buffer speeds up 
printing enormously. Our prize also 
includes the colour upgrade kit, 
enabling you to print out those 
stunning IFF graphics on paper. 

In our review of dot-matrix 
printers, Mark Smtddy was 
impressed: "Living with the Swift is a 
dream ... by far the best feature, and 
what would certainly sell it to me, is 
Citizen's unique control panel. The 
system is so beautifully easy it almost 
defies description. Output quality is 
excellent. Overall the Swift 9 is 
probably the best 9-pin print engine 
around." High praise indeed! 

So how con you win it? Simple: 
just have a quick read of the 
incredibly easy questions below, 
in the coupon, stick it on the back 
of an envelope or postcard, 
and send it to Citizen Printer 
Competition, Amiga Shopper, 
29 Monmouth Street, Bath 
BA1 2AP. 

Here comes the small print. 
All entries must be received 
by August 1 to be considered. 
Entries must be on the back of an 
envelope or postcard, not in an 
envelope (we hurt our hands opening 
hundreds of envelopes, you know). 
Anyone who works for Future 



Amiga Shopper, in conjunction v/ith Citizen, is 
offering you the chance to win your very own 
colour dot-matrix printer, v/orth more than £230! 




Publishing or 
Citizen can't enter. 
The editor's decision is 
final. I've made up my mind and 
that's that. No arguments. (^ 



1 Questions • Questions • Questions 1 

* 1 


Question 1 


Question 3 


Who directed Citizen Kanel 


Which writer invented 


A H 6 Wells 


Ice-Nine? 


B Orson Wells 


A Kurt Vonnegut 


C Alan Wells 


B Joseph Heller 




C Isaac Asimov 


Question 2 




Which of the following is a 


Question 4 


swift? 


Who was the first printer in 


A The name of the clock 


England? 


chip in an Amiga 


A Johnathan Epson 


B A disease of sheep 


ft Johann Gutenburg 


C A type of newt 


C Thomas Caxton 



This Citizen Swift 9 could be yours in days - just answer the incredibly 
simple questions on this page and bung the entry form in the post. 

Tick the appropriate boxes and fill in your name and 
address, then send the coupon, stuck on the bock of a 
postcard or envelope to: 

Citizen Printer Competition, Amiga Shopper, 29 Monmouth 
Street, Bath BA1 2AP by August 1. 

1 A J B J C J 



Question 2 


aQ 


B J 


cQ 


Question 3 


A J 


bG 


cQ 


Question 4 


aQ 


bG 


cQ 



Name 

Address 

Postcode 



Telephone 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1 99 1 



ii 



LETTERS 






When Andy Warhol said everyone 
would be famous for 15 minutes 
he reckoned without AS. On these 
pages you can be famous for a 
whole month, and win a whole £5 
into the bargain. AS's new editor 
Stuart Anderton is your host... 



Mind your language 

Who was Cliff Ramshaw aiming his 
article 'Breaking the Language 
Barrier' [AS 2) at? BASlCally, what 
I'm trying to say is, the article seemed 
to have been COMPILED from a 
whole bunch of concepts, some of 
which were irrelevant. 
FORTRANately for me I could C what 
Cliff was driving at, but he could 
hove taken a more MODULA 
approach which would have meant 
that non-techies would not have 
needed an INTERPRETER. Have a 
chew on a Fruit PASCAL, take your 
time and ASSEMBLE your thoughts in 
a more orderly fashion, Cliff. 

M J D Castle 

RAF Wattisham 

Suffolk 

Sorry you thought the article 
was COBOUed together. We'll 
try to set FORTH our ideas 
more carefully in future, wifh 
the ADA more explanations. 

Bimbos in the desert 

Someone out here lent me a copy of 
Amiga Shopper, great magazine, 
like it. Who needs glossy coloured 
pics? 

As to what I'd like to see, how 
about a series of articles on what 
mokes the Amiga tick, the ROM 
kernel manuals explained for 
bimbos? 

Ref your "Who are you?" 
snippet, you're welcome to drop 
round for a chat anytime! Quite a 
few Amiga owners in Oman actually, 
enough to start us thinking of an 
Oman User Group. 

Mike Lundberg 

RAFO Khasab 
Oman 

I'd call round for a drink, but I 
suspect you can get arrested 
for that over there and tea just 



isn't the same. As for making 
AS a magazine for bimbos, a 
beginners' course in hair 
styling starts next month, 
written by Ian, our production 
editor. Seriously though, I 
hope you like the piece on 
Intuition programming on 
page 79, and there's plenty 
more where that came from. If 
you do set up a user group, 
drop our user groups' page a 
line and we'll give you a plug. 

Less is more 

Having recently bought an Amiga 
A500 for my son, I decided to see 
what magazines were available. I 
was surprised to find a fairly wide 
range, but even more surprised at the 
prices. I baulked at paying £4.95, 
and even £2.95 was on the high 
side. Eventually I settled for a copy of 
Amiga Shopper which seemed to fit 
the bill nicely. 

Back home, a more detailed look 
left me with the impression that it was 
too busy and there was too much to 
read. However, I look the trouble to 
go through it all and it was worth the 
effort. For instance, I never knew 
what PD software was until now. 

Having said that, can I pull you 
up on one small point. In a recent 
reply, I read "...having less editorial 
pages...". I'm sure it was a slip of the 



pen and you really meant 'fewer 
pages'. I have already sent off a 
year's subscription so I will definitely 
know if the editor is checking over 
what you done wrote. 

KG Lee 

Camber ley 

Surrey 

/ hope you will have less 
complaints about this issue. 

Dunzappin 

At last, lhank goodnessl Someone's 
finally arrived at the notion that there 
is more to the Amiga than playing 
games. Not that I'm knocking games 
you understand - they're very 
therapeutic and I still dig Interceptor 
out of the disk box - but there's more 
to life and computing than zapping 
aliens. 

I would be interested to know 
who you are aiming the mag at. It 
looks as if the younger reader is 
being targeted. In many ways, 
Amiga Shopper retains the "comic" 
image common to the majority of 
computer magazines on the market. 
For instance, the cartoon images of 
the staff writers hardly inspire 
confidence. Either get rid of them 
completely or at least replace them 
with proper photos. And AMOSI 
Who thought that one up*> OK, 
product sales have exceeded 40,000 



Tell me it's not true 

I just got done reading your round-up of external floppy drives in the May 1991 
issue. You people didn't actually stand on the drives and swing them by the 
cable? You didn't actually pour coffee on them, did you? I can't believe that you 
would pour bleach on a disk drivel 

Please tell me that this is an April Fool's joke, just a little bit latel 

Chris Edgin 
Rockford 



USA 



No April Fool's joke, just a fair (if tough) test. 



and that's great for the software 
house but, after all, it's only a 
glorified Basic. I know that a number 
of software packages created with 
AMOS have been marketed but I 
would have thought that if you were 
going to get serious about 
programming then you would have 
made Basic itself the subject. 

Keith R Munn 
Glasgow 

The magazine is aimed at 
every Amiga enthusiast who 
wants something a bit more 
substantial than a games 
cheat, simple as that. Young 
and old, men and women, 
blondes and brunettes, as long 
as they want to know more 
about their favourite hobby, 
AS is for them. 

As for AMOS, you answer 
your own question: 40,000 
copies have been sold so 
40,000 people out there want 
to know how to get the best 
out of it. So we tell them. We 
will also cover other Basics, in 
fact we will cover any 
language our readers want to 
know about Why not write in 
and let us know what tutorials 
you would enjoy reading? 

Making a click stop 

I purchased the anti-click board and I 
find that it works - to a certain extent. 
On a cold boot, the mechanism 
seems to work fine, and the drive 
doesn't click at all (dfO:, that is). 
However, whenever I reboot the 
computer (using [Ctrl]-[Amiga]- 
(Amiga)) and I leave a disk in the 
drive, then once the disk is ejected 
dfO: starts clicking again. I found that 
the only way to prevent this is to eject 
the disk before rebooting, and then 
everything seems to work OK. Apart 

continued on page 14 



12 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1 99 1 



LETTERS 



BENCHMARKING BASICS IS NOT PLAIN SAILING 



I reod with interest Cliff Ramshow's article 
on implementations of Basic for the Amiga 
in issue 3 of Amiga Shopper I feel that I 
must point out some omissions and 
misunderstandings, particularly in the 
benchmarks 

Creating benchmarks to test the 
relative speed of various packages is an 
unenviable task which makes enemies for 
the reviewer foster than most Middle- 
Eastern dictalorsl He should, however, 
always strive to produce tests which 
isolate and evaluate particular attributes 
of the software, whilst pointing out the 
differences in implementation that may 
affect the results - unfortunately Cliff's 
benchmarks fail on both these counts. 

First of all, the timings for the String, 
Trig and Factorial tests are distorted by 
the inclusion of code to print out the 
results in each case. It is well known that 
screen output slows down many 
programs, especially if the screen scrolls - 
certainly most finished programs would 
never scroll text. If you wish to test the 
speed of integer arithmetic or string 
handling you must test these attributes, not 
how quickly text can be moved up the 
screen. That's like measuring the relative 
acceleration of sports cars in the pouring 
rain; they all skid and slide, masking true 
performance. 

At least two of the tests also suffer 



from implementation-dependent quirks 
which have not been brought to the 
readers' attention. Cliff remarks on the 
slow speeds recorded by HiSoft Basic and 
GFA Basic on the Bob test, compared with 
thol of AmigaBasic, but makes no effort 
to find out why. I can only speak lor 
HiSoh Basic which runs Bob (stop 

9'99'' n 9> y° u Black Adder freaks) more 
slowly because it is moving the bob 

continuously, every pixel In contrast 
AmigaBasic updates the screen under 
interrupts every so often, resulting in a 
faster but much less smooth movement as 
it actually places something like an eighth 
fewer bobs on the screen I AMOS and 
Bliti undoubtedly hove optimised routines 
for sprite handling but again we are not 
told how many bobs are used with their 
version of the program. This is important 
information, without which one cannot 
judge the relevance of the benchmark. 

The Trig test uses floating point 
arithmetic to calculate a trigonometrical 
sum which should evaluate to 1 . Every 
interpreter/compiler treats floating point 
differently, however, some having slow 
but accurate routines whilst others 
sacrifice accuracy for speed. Cliff does 
not explain the differences in floating 
point representations of the various 
packages, nor does he give us an 
indication of their accuracy. 



In conclusion I think that, in the 
interests of accuracy and completeness, 
you should recode the benchmarks and 
retime them. I would appreciate it if you 
would then rescore the speed rating 

David Link 
HiSoft 

As you say, creating benchmarks 
is a minefield of problems. There is 
a magazine in America which has 
full-time staff devoted entirely to 
producing benchmarks! 
Unfortunately our resources are 
not quite of the same level, so a 
couple of errors slipped through 
the net. 

Indeed these benchmarks do 
include code to print the results. 
Although this makes the tests less 
'pure' than they would otherwise 
have been, I believe they were still 
fair and gave a valid comparison. 
Basics with a better screen 
drawing routine would have 
benefited, as they would in the 
real world. 

It was a bad omission on our 
part to leave out an explanation 
of the accuracy of the Trig tests. 
For the record, GFA Basic. HiSoft 
Basic and AmigaBasic all use eight 
bytes to represent floating point 



numbers. Presumably then, they 
all calculate their results to the 
same accuracy. AMOS uses four, 
but still managed to be slower 
than the rest. The idiosyncrasies of 
Blitz Basic's number format were 
pointed out in the review. 

As for the Bob test, due to 
what scientists call experimental 
error and what editors call an 
outrageous cock-up, the time for 
AmigaBasic which was printed 
bears no resemblance to reality. In 
fact the timing for AmigaBasic 
should have been 2,369.92 
seconds, not 548.04. Thus there is 
hardly any difference between 
AmigaBasic and HiSoft Basic 
whose figure was 2,516.65. The 
results for AMOS and Blitz were 
similarly wrong, and the Bob test 
results should be ignored. 

Despite the problems with the 
benchmarks we stand by our 
eventual conclusion, that Blitz is 
the fastest Basic (21/25) while 
there is little to choose in terms of 
speed between AMOS (11/25), 
GFA Basic (12/25) and HiSoft Basic 
(10/25). However, we will be 
redesigning our benchmarks for 
tests we do in the future, and we 
will bear in mind your comments. 



&*fUtel Ttontti, Atd. 





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V) 



LETTERS 



continued from page 13 

from that, I haven't had any problems 
with the board causing havoc with 
the computer. 

Mikhael Michaelides 

Ealing 
London 

I sent away to Power Computing for 
the anti-click board kit, from Issue 1 , 
and put it together. AH seemed fine, 
the board reduced disk clicks to o 
whisper, and life went quietly on - 
until I tried to load up a game called 
Silkworm. Nothing doing. Nix. Not a 
chippolata. So I tried my other games 
(OK, so I do games now and then, I 
can handle it). They all work fine, as 
do all my applications progs, utilities, 
etc. etc. A friend checked out the 
Silkworm disk on his machine, it 
worked fine - all I can think of is that 
it has something to do with the copy 
protection scheme on the disk. 

Hamish A Ramsay 

Stockport 

Cheshire 

We hadn 't come across either 
of these problems, but with 
any piece of machinery as 
complex as an Amiga there 
are bound to be some 
unforeseen difficulties. If any 
reader has a solution, please 
tell us and we vW// pass it on. 

Not for sale 

About three weeks ago I faxed a 
classified ad form to you regarding 
the sale of PD software. I was most 



disappointed when I saw on the 
same ad form in the next issue that 
advertising PD software wouldn't be 
allowed. 

I have been trying to start a PD 
library for some months but I cannot 
afford trade advertising rates as I 
need the money to build up my 
library. 

George Mason 

Southampton 

Hants 

We print the reader ads as a 
service for AS readers, to let 
them buy, sell and swap their 
stuff with other Amiga owners 
countrywide. What the reader 
ads are most definitely not for 
is the trade - they can buy 
advertising space for their 
wares from us like the 
commercial businesses they 
are. PD libraries fall into a 
very grey area between the 
fwo. The big, we// organised 
libraries are definitely 
businesses, with staff and 
overheads and a charge per 
disk to cover these. Other 
libraries are run out of a back 
bedroom in the evenings with 
no profit taken. We can't 
judge which is w/iicfi from the 
ads, so we are forced to take 
the blanket approach of 
banning PD libraries from the 
reader ads. 

You can, of course, still 
swap PD disks through the 
ads, but you can't sell them; 
sorry. 



Still smelling sweet? 

First off I would like to thank you for 
producing the only magazine that is 
truly user friendly, and able to offer 
helpful advice on almost anything. 
Anyway, I have a small query. 
Please could you tell me the 
differences between an Amiga 1 500 
and a 2000? I think I read 
somewhere that they are in fact one 
in the same, is this true? 

Alexander Richards 

West Drayton 

Middlesex 

They are indeed one and the 
same computer. In fact, if you 
take the lid of a I 500 you find 
"Amiga 2000" neatly stamped 
on the motherboard. 

Make a date 

While browsing through some of my 
elderly computer magazines, I 
suddenly had a brilliant idea. Many 
of the game advertisements which I 
saw featured excellent artwork and it 
seemed a shame that much of it is 
now long forgotten. 

This is where the computer 
companies come in. Every year, they 
could produce a calendar and poster 
book containing their best pieces of 
artwork as nominated by the general 
public and various computer 
magazines. 

The artists who draw them must 
take many hours on these illustrations 
- thus compiling books of this 
material would widen its audience 
and form the definitive collection of 



If only you could just plug in and go 



I own an Atari ST and a Commodore Amiga, and 
although the Amiga has a superior operating system, I 
sometimes find myself wishing for the speed of the ST's 
ROM-based Desktop. 

As you know, the Workbench is loaded from disk, 
and therefore takes a lot of time, memory and disk swaps 
to run properly. The first thing most people do to ease the 
effort of using the Workbench is to buy a second disk 
drive, usually followed by a memory upgrade. 

My idea is this: if games producers are thinking going 
ahead with games production on cartridges of 2Mb, 4Mb 
or even 8Mb to go in the expansion port, why shouldn't 
the same be done for the Workbench? 

A 2Mb cartridge wold be enough for Workbench 1 .3 
onwards, storing the Workbench disk and the Extras disk, 
which means that you would not have to wait for the 
Workbench to load and it should not need to be held in 
memory, thus freeing up a disk drive and a fair amount of 
memory. It would obviously need to have a through port 
for hard drives etc, as even hard drive users would 
appreciate freeing space taken by Workbench, especially 
on a 20Mb hard drive. 

The price should not need to be too high as the 
software is already written, it seems to me that it is a 
matter of collating the programs, producing the cortridge 
and marketing it. As games manufacturers can produce 
cartridges at £30, a 2Mb Workbench cartridge for the 



Amiga need not cost any more than that. 

Developing the idea further, a cartridge with up to 
8Mb storage capacity could be used to hold the new 
Workbench 2. As I understand it, the new Workbench is 
out of reach of a lot of users due to the new Kickstart and 
the large amount of memory it occupies. The new Kickstart 
chip could be included in the cartridge, and the fact that 
the Workbench would be held in ROM means that it 
would use up less RAM. 

A lot of Amiga users (including myself) would no 
doubt appreciate such a cartridge, and would gladly pay 
between £30 and £50 for such a device. 

If you cannot see any major unsurmountable problems 
in this idea, I would appreciate it if you could pass it on to 
appropriate hardware or software manufacturers. 

Gareth Perch 

Kidderminster 

Worcestershire 

This sounds like an absolutely excellent idea to 
me, but can it be done? If you know of any 
problems with this approach, or can think of a 
simple way of doing it, then write to us at the 
usual address. 

H we can get some technical details worked 
out, then we can approach Commodore and see 
what the company has to say. 



computer drawings from the very best 
artists! What do you think of this 
idea? 

Stuart N Hardy 

Sheffield 

South Yorkshire 

While I'm not sure if I'd want 
such a calendar on my wall, I 
expect there are many who 
would. Why not write to one 
of the big games firms with 
your suggestion? More 
interesting might be a 
calendar of images actually 
produced on the Amiga. If 
anyone has produced some 
artwork that might be 
suitable, send a copy in to AS, 
perhaps we could put together 
our own. 

Nag nag nag 

OK, enough, I've had it with all those 
moaning A 1000 owners who claim 
to have built the Amiga market the 
way it is now, and nag about the fact 
that their machines are not supported 
anymore by hardware manufacturers 
and Amiga magazines 

First of all, it is the A500 which 
built up the Amiga market the way it 
is today. Without this machine they 
wouldn't have dropped the prices, 
and the Amiga would have been 
exactly what the Archimedes is 
today: a powerful and versatile but 
overpriced computer, which would 
never had reached those millions of 
users as the Amiga has done. 

So, all you frustrated A 1000 
owners, stop moaning and face the 
facts of life: the A 1000 is an old 
beast, which is simply not interesting 
anymore for the majority of 
manufacturers. 

Roger Popken 

Stadskanall 

Holland 

When I left New Computer 
Express six months ago I 
thought I'd seen the last "My 
Computer is Better than Your 
Computer" letter. It seems I 
was wrong. How anyone can 
get worked up over someone 
else liking a different model of 
Amiga is completely beyond 
me. They are all excellent 
machines, and our limited 
A1000 coverage is simply 
down fo the small number of 
readers with A 1000s. ^j 



Write Right Now 

Send your letters to: Talking 
Shop, Amiga Shopper, 30 
Monmouth Street, Bath BA1 
2BW. Every letter we print 
wins £5. 



14 



AMIGA SHOPPER • I55UE 4 • AUGUST 1991 



AMIGA 



S W E R S 





Send your questions to: Amiga Answers, Amiga 
Shopper, 30 Monmouth Sheet, Bath BA1 2BW 



— Q 

Titling troubles 

I do not yet own an Amiga. I 
am not primarily a computer 
enthusiast but I am looking for 
a high quality titling system 
for amateur videos. I'm trying 
to decide if the Amiga 500 
with 1Mb is suitable for titling 
and, if so, which software will 
give good, crisp titles with 
scrolling and a 'proper' font 
with well-shaped characters 
(no jagged curves). I am not 
interested in fancy animated 
titles at this stage, although I 
may want to upgrade at some 
stage in the future. 

I already have the video 
gear, including a mixer 
(Panasonic AVE-5) which will 
synchronise two inputs (S- 
video or composite) so I do not 
need a genlock. It seems from 
reading your magazine that 
the Amiga is only capable of 
high resolution output by 
deviating from the normal 
interlacing arrangements. Is 
this correct and, if so, exactly 
how does it affect titles 
recorded on a VTR? 

NC Friswell 

Horsham 

West Sussex 



A 



First off, of course I would 
recommend that you buy an Amiga 
to do the titling - this is an Amiga 
magazine, after all. And then I would 
recommend the Big Alternative 
Scroller, which will work on a 1Mb 
Amiga and costs around £50. 

This program should cover all 
your stated titling needs, including 
scrolls, crawls and a selection of 
useful fonts. Of course, you could opt 
for something more professional, 
such as Scala or Broadcast Titler 2, 
but then you'll be shelling out 
somewhere in the region of £200 
and will also have to add more 
memory. So, check out BAS first; I 
think you'll be happy with it. 



Secondly, although you have the 
AVE-5, you still require a way to get 
a video output from the Amiga to the 
mixer. So you'll have to buy either a 
genlock or an RGB converter. A 
genlock would be of more use, since 
you could still use your AVE-5 for 
mixing and then put the Amiga 
'downstream' (after the mixer output 
and before your recorder input), so 
that you can put titles directly over 
video effects. 

Finally, I don't understand where 
you got the idea that the Amiga is 
somehow perverting the course of 
video signals. There is absolutely no 
problem with video output in any 
resolution! Perhaps you've confused 
video output with monitor 
output/flicker fixers and the like. So, 
no worries there. GW 



Q 



On the right track 

Can I load a Soundtracker 
song or module on Med and 
vice versa? Why won't my 
copy of Soundtracker 2.4 save 
my songs as a module? Is it 
possible to control some 3-volt 
DC motors on the Amiga from 
AMOS or AmigaBASIC or 
would I have to use machine 
code? In any case, how would 
I do it? 

Alex Harrison 



A 



Yes indeedy, you can load and save 
Soundtracker modules and scores 
using the ME D program with no 
problems at all. 

As for the reason your 
Soundtracker 2.4 program won't 
save, it is probably down to one of 
two possible causes: either the 
program disk is corrupted, in which 
case you'll have to get hold of 
another copy, or there just isn't 
enough room for a module left on the 
disk. Try deleting some things, maybe 
a few song scores, and you should 
be able to create enough room to 
save a module. If that doesn't solve 
your problem, try junking your copy 



We've assembled the best panel 
of Amiga experts in the country 
and every month they'll be 
putting their heads together to 
help solve your problems. Be they 
trivial or be they tec hie, Amiga 
Shopper has got all the answers 



of Soundtracker and use MED. 

In order to control any motors or 
any other such device, you'd need a 
robotic interface One company that 
may be able to help you out is MDR 
Interfaces » 0825 790294 PS 



Q 



SCART connections 

My son has a major problem 
with the Amiga 500 SCART to 
Fidelity SCART connectors. The 
monitor was originally bought 
for a BBC micro and gave no 
problems, but when he tried to 
use it with his new Amiga we 
discovered that, in fact, not all 
SCART connectors really are 
SCART connectorsl 

The only detail we have on 



the monitor is that it is a 
Fidelity CM 14 colour monitor. 
Please help us with details, if 
you can, on the pin-outs of 
both or either. 

Jack Britten 
London 



A 



So far, I've drown a blank on any 
information about the CM1 4 monitor, 
since it seems that Fidelity is no 
longer in existence. 

There is a way around this, if you 
are prepared to do some detective 
work and, perhaps, some soldering. 

What you need to do is work out 
the connections from the BBC output 
to the SCART, then translate these 

continued on page 16 



Keep It Quiet 



A noise abatement tip comes 
from Mike Hunter of Shirley, 
Southampton; 

Everyone complains about the 
noise from the A590 disk 
drive. Mine was an instant 
headache job - I feared it 
would be unusable. However, 
the following modifications to 
the plastic cover have made 
the beast quite domesticated. 

Get a kit of car sound- 
deadening material 
(bituminised felt with a self- 
adhesive backing) from your 
local car accessory shop. Cut 
sections to fit inside the top of 
the A590 s lid and all round 
between the stiffening webs 
on the inside of the casing. 
(Use a sharp knife and a ruler 
to cut the material as scissors 
make a mess.) 

This cuts out most of the 
noise, but not the high-pitched 
scream from the fan. The fan 
itself is nearly silent if 



unscrewed from the lid, so 
where does the noise 
originate? Looking for the 
cause, I noticed the shape of 
the air outlet fins: they are 
tapered the wrong way and 
have sharp edges at the fan 
end. Thus, the air is being 
blown out through seven 
pennywhistles. 

Rounding off the bottoms of 
the fins on the inside of the 
case makes a dramatic 
reduction to the overall fan 
noise and completely 
eliminates the scream. I 
the back of a modelling knife 
blade to scrape away the 
plastic - just enough to remove 
the sharp edges. Done 
carefully, the change can't be 
seen from the outside. 

Well Mike, please accept a 
fiver from us. Hopefully it will 
go some way towards 
compensating you for the 
headaches you have suffered. 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1991 



15 



AMIGA ANSWERS 



continued from page I S 

connections in terms of those of the 
Amiga. You should be able to find all 
the relevant information in the BBC 
and Amiga manuals. For each 
connection from the BBC to the 
SCART, find the equivalent on the 



Amiga. Then examine the SCART 
end of the cable and note down what 
is connected where. An electronic 
test meter (set to read resistance) will 
help to find which wires are 
connected at each end of the cable 
and will mean you don't have to 



WHATEVER YOUR PROBLEM WITH THE 
AMIGA, WE ARE HERE TO SOLVE IT 

That's the task we have set ourselves in giving you the best possible 
support for your Amiga. We are confident that our experts can cope 
with anything you can throw at them. If they don't already know the 
answer to your problem, they will find it out. Read on for some of the 
typical, and obscure, problems you may encounter when trying to get 
the most out of your Amiga. 

CONSULT AMIGA SHOPPER'S EXPERT PANEL 

We are prepared to deal with any problem you have with the Amiga, 
from general enquiries about AmigaDOS or workbench, through 
questions about specific pieces of software and hardware, to advice 
on what you need to buy to do a particular task. If it's to do with the 
Amiga, we will help out. What we cannot do is offer this service over 
the telephone - do not phone us with your enquiries, but write 
or fax us at the address and number below. 

We also cannot enter into personal correspondence - all enquiries 
will be dealt with in the pages of the magazine. This does mean a bit 
of a delay in solving your problem, but we will come up with an 
answer for you. You'll just have to be a little patient and wait for it to 
appear in print. 

Send your questions to: Amiga Answers, Amiga Shopper, 30 
Monmouth Street, Bath BA1 2BW. Fax: 0225 446019. 

The Amiga Answers panel consists of all three consultant editors - 
Jeff Walker, Mark Smiddy and Phil South - and of course resident 
technical editor Cliff Ramshaw. We will also be calling on the services 
of all our other contributors, so you won't be able to catch us napping 
on any subject. Each panelist will be dealing with queries in their own 
specialist area and it would help us greatly if, when writing, you label 
your query envelope with the name of the expert who can solve your 
particular problem. Below is a list of their areas of expertise. It's a list 
that we will add to and update every month so you will know who to 
write to about any subjects not mentioned here. 

Gary Whiteley - Video. 

Stewart Russell - Comms, CAD. 

Paul Overaa - programming, music. 

Mick Draycott - hardware, programming, MIDI. 

Jeff Walker - desktop publishing, programming. 

Mark Smiddy - AmigaDOS, business, CDTV, hardware projects, 

hard and floppy disk drives. 

Phil South - public domain, graphics, AMOS. 

Jolyon Ralph - programming, hardware. 

Ian Wrigley - films, maths. 

Stuart Anderton - obscure bands and hi-fi. 

Cliff Ramshaw - the really hard stuff that no-one else can answer. 

If you think you have been ignored... 

Don't panic, there could be several reasons why your question has not 
appeared this month: 

• It did not reach us in time to be included this issue. 

• The answer to your question is given as part of the answer to 
another published this month. 

• You have not given us enough information in your letter to answer 
the question fully. 



remove the connector covers. 

Finally, you should have all the 
necessary information to make up a 
new cable - from the Amiga RGB 
monitor socket to the SCART. Take 
care, however, not to connect or 
short the voltage pins on the 23-pin 
Amiga RGB connection. 

Alternatively, find a local TV 
repair shop and ask them if they are 
prepared to make a new cable for 
you. They will need to find out all the 
relevant information (as described 
above) but they should be able to 
sort it out for you GW 



a 



Hard disk choices 

Later this year I plan to buy a 
hard drive for my A500. I've 
got my choice down to two. 
The first one I am considering 
is the Xetec Fastrack but in the 
hard drive trial in issue one 
you said that it proved too 
tricky to get running. I'd be 
grateful if you could clarify 
this point: is it too tricky for 
someone who has a fair bit of 
technical know how, and how 
does it perform when it is up 
and running? 

The second drive under 
consideration is the GVP 
Impact II+. The only thing I 
want to know about this one 
is: does it has a through port? 

MA Henderson 

Tipton 

West Midlands 



A 



The Xetec machine is pretty tricky to 
get up and running no matter how 
much technical nouse you may have. 
Once going it is no better than 
overage, and certainly no longer 
lives up to the claims made for it. The 
GVP Impact 11+ drive is faster, better 
made and generally a better unit all 
round. It does not have a through 
port - and, judging from my 
experience of such things, probably 
behaves better for the lack of it. MS 

Q 

Transfer to video 

I have a few animation and 
music demos that I would like 
to transfer to video tape. 
Having tried various 
combinations of VCR and 
computer to no avail, I have 
come to the conclusion that I 
require a genlock. Would this 
be capable of transferring the 
audio as well as the visuals to 
tape? Also, if a genlock is the 
answer, can you recommend a 
cheap one as I will probably 
use it only once for this 
particular job. Even better - do 



you know of anybody who 
will do this job for me - I don't 
mind paying for it. 

Robert Dibdin 

Chessington 

Surrey 



A 



Taking the last question first, buy a 
copy of Camcorder User or a similar 
specialist video production magazine 
and check out the video production 
ads. There are many facilities with 
Amigas nowadays, and you should 
be able to find someone willing to do 
the transfers for you. Then you could 
probably just send them yours disks, 
tell them what you require and, Hey 
Presto, problem solved. 

As you say, if you want to do it 
yourself then you would have to get a 
video signal from your Amiga. A 
modulator would work, when 
connected to the aerial input of your 
VHS (or whatever) recorder. But you 
would obtain much better quality by 
using a genlock. If you want a cheap 
one, try something like the Minigen. 
But why not try to borrow one? 

All you would then need to do 
would be to connect the video and 
audio outputs from the Amiga to your 
recorder and off you go. 

With some experimentation you 
should soon get the hang of it GW 

Q 

RAM problems 1 

After your review of the GVP II 
hard disk in issue one, I 
decided to buy one of these 
legendary machines. 

I bought the thing with 
2Mb fitted. Most of my 
programs ran OK, but when I 
tried to run Pagestream 2, 
Protext 5, Photon Paint 2 or 
Aegis Draw from the hard disk 
they all crashed. 

As soon as I removed the 
extra 2Mb from the hard disk 
the programs ran like a 
dream. Is the extra memory at 
fault, or is it a simple case of 
incompatibility? Is there 
anything I can do so that 
Pagestream can run with more 
than a pitiful 1Mb? 

Neil Dudman 

Potters Bar 

Herts 



A 



There is no reason why programs 
such as Pagestream 2 and Protext 5 
should crash with extra memory; I run 
both programs with extra memory on 
my mochine without any problems. 

H certainly sounds like a memory 
problem to me. Firstly, check to make 
sure thot both SIMMs ore properly 

CMTiived m p«9« 18 



16 



AMIGA SHOPPrR • ISSUE A • AUGUST 1001 



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17 



AMIGA ANSWERS 



contiftwd from poge 16 

installed. They hove to be very firmly 
pushed into place. If one SIMM is 
slightly misaligned it could cause ihe 
problems you are having. If this is not 
the problem, it looks like you have a 
foully memory chip somewhere on 
your GVP board. This is sometimes 
difficult to diagnose with software 
RAM-lesting utilities: some chips, for 
example, work fine until they warm 
up. The first thing to try is to leave the 
RAM test program running overnight. 
If that does not find any problem, 
your best bet is to send the 2Mb of 
chips back to your supplier and ask 
for them to be checked oul on a 
professional chip-tester (which all 
decent memory suppliers should have 
access to) or, better still, ask them to 
give you 2Mb of new chips. 

There is also a chance that your 
GVP card could hove a fault on it, 
but I'd recommend that you get the 
chips replaced first. If that does not 
solve it, send the board back JR 



a 



RAM problems 2 

I recently installed a Fast Card 
Plus, without the hard drive 
but with 2Mb SIMM chips 
installed, giving my B2000 a 
total of 3Mb of RAM. The 
problem I have is that, since 
installing this card, whatever 
program I use crashes after a 
very short time. At first I 
thought that I might have a 
virus on my machine, but all of 



Works Tip 

In response to the second part 
of D Armstrong's 'Double 
Buffered' problem in June's 
issue, D Chiswell writes with a 
solution he originally 
obtained from Micro-Systems 
Software. 

To run Platinum Works! from 
an A590 hard disk, first load 
the HDToolbox. Click on 
'partition drive'. Click on 
'advanced options'. Click on 
'add/update file system'. 
Click on 'update file system'. 
Change the version number to 
1 . Exit the toolbox, 
remembering to save the 
changes to disk. Reboot from 
the hard disk and all should 
be well. 

Thanks Mr Chiswell. Could 
you please write to us and let 
us know your address so we 
can send you your hard- 
earned fiver. 



my disks checked out OK and 
virus-free with VirusX 4. 

I got in touch with Third 
Coast Technology (which 
supplied the card and chips). 
The people there were of some 
help but, like me, were left 
scratching their heads. It all 
seems to point to the RAM 
chips, as when I try the card 
without the RAM everything is 
fine - I can use the machine all 
day without a single guru. But 
with the chips in place the 
system crashes up to 10 times 
a day. I would like to 
purchase a hard drive for this 
card, but am reluctant to do so 
until this problem is solved. 

John Purvey 

Walthamstow 

London 



A 



This sounds to be the very same 
problem that Mr Dudman is having 
with his GVP controller. Again, make 
sure the SIMMs are correctly 
installed. If this does not solve the 
problem, send them bock to Third 
Coast and ask for them to be 
replaced, t should think that you 
would have no problems with a hard 
disk. It is highly unlikely that the 
controller is causing the problem. If 
the memory was not being 
recognised at all I would be a bit 
more cautious, but as the Amiga is 
recognising Ihe memory (even though 
it causes it to crash) it is unlikely that 
there is anything wrong with the 
controller. Any SCSI drive will work 
with your controller. Check through 
the adverts in this issue to find the 
best price on drives. JR 



Q 



Star LC24-200 printer 

I have a Star LC24-200 colour 
printer and I have a number of 
questions which I would be 
grateful if you could answer: 

a) In my printer's manual, I 
found in the specifications 
under the 'Bit image dot- 
matrix' a '24-bit hex' mode. 
This is the only mode that can 
print at 360dpi. There was a 
note saying: 'It is impossible to 
print adjacent dots in this 
mode'. I hope it's something 
that does not concern Amigas, 
but could you please explain 
what it means? 

b) With which bit-image dot 
matrix does the Amiga 
communicate with the Printer? 
(Is it the '24-bit Hex'?) 

c) I am using the Prefs driver 
NecPINWRITER'. The 



AmigaDOS manual says I've 
got to use the 'EpsonQ'. Which 
is the most suitable for my 
colour printer? 

d) Sometimes, during a 
Workbench session, something 
strange happens. The pointer 
still moves around freely, but I 
can't select icons, menus or 
use the Shell. The computer 
seems completely dead except 
for the pointer. As well as all 
this, all the drives stop 
whirring or clicking. Why? 

e) Is there any software in the 
public domain for making 
printer drivers? 

E Causarano 



know of any place from which 
I can buy these chips? 

Rodney Muscat 

London 



A 



a) It means just what it says: the 
printer cannot print two dots next to 
each other in this resolution, so 
although you have 360 printing 
positions per inch, at best the printer 
can only print 1 80 of them 
horizontally. 

b) It varies depending on the density 
setting. Densities of 1-4 only are 

supported by the EpsonQ driver, 

c) Probably EpsonQ - although the 
driver is not particularly brilliant (see 
the printer review elsewhere in this 
issue). With this driver the printer can 
only manage 1 80x1 80dpi for colour 
(density 3) or 360x1 80dpi (density 
4) for black-and-white. 

d) You have probably caught some 
rogue virus. A new strain perhaps? 
Of course, it could just be a bug in 
Workbench. 

el) Yes. 

e2) Printer Driver Generator (how's 
that for on original name) is a good 
bet, and it's available from all good 
PD libraries. However, I must warn 
you that it is not easy to use. 
Alternatively, my good mate Nigel 
Streeter is collecting weird and 
wacky printer drivers; and when he 
reads this he'll probably call me and 
tell me what else is around. MS 



Q 



Expansion for free? 

While looking inside my 
Amiga 2000 I found a 
Commodore expansion board 
labelled A2000 1Mb RAM 
EXP. ASSY No, 380 745 REV .3 
a 101-042'. While examining 
the board I noticed that there 
was room for 16 more chips. 
Does this mean I can have 
more memory without having 
to buy a 8-up board? Do you 



A 



According to Commodore, that 
particular board is rather old and 
only takes the machine up by an 
extra 0.5Mb using a set of 1 20ns 
4 1 256, or similar, RAM chips. 
However, before you rush off and 
buy those chips, there is more to this 
upgrade than meets the eye. 
Although the board can be 
configured to take the extra RAM, it 
has a design fault. Testers have 
reported, and Commodore confirms, 
that the machine becomes highly 
unstable when the extra RAM has 
been added and frequently crashes 
without warning. Therefore, I cannot 
recommend that you make the 
modification because it is probably 
going to a prove a waste of money. 
A better bet would be to buy a later 
board, or one of the many third-party 
expansions. MS 



Q 



Disk corruption 

The tape loading problems I 
used to get with my old C64 
are nothing compared to my 
Amiga. Approximately once a 
week I get a 'Volume so-and- 
so has a read write error' or 
'Disk structure corrupt... ' 
requester on my Amiga 500. 

Could it be a mains fault, 
and if so can I fix it? Would a 
voltage regulator help? 

I don't know if it makes 
any difference, but my house 
is next to a motorway. 

Peter Ford 

Woodford Green 

Essex 

A 

Disk errors are a fact of life and this 
sort of thing is by no means 
uncommon. The reason why disks 
suddenly develop errors (as I am 
writing this, one of the office Amigas 
is doing just that) is governed by the 
neo-science of chaos theory. There 
are so many factors influencing why 
disks go wrong that it is often difficult 
to pinpoint the exact cause - 
although it is fair to say that it 
probably has nothing to do with a 
butterfly beating its wings. Disk 
drives ore complex magneto- 
mechanical, precision engineered 
devices and are subject to a wide 
variety of environmental hazards. 
Read the disk drive supertest in issue 
one and you might get some idea. 

The exact cause of your problem 
is, therefore, difficult to pinpoint, and 
I con only offer some typical causes 



18 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUOU5T 199 1 



AMIGA ANSWERS 



for the problem. Some ore simple, 
while others are rather more subtle. 

• First of all, I doubt if the problem 
has anything to do with either dirty 
mains or living near to a motorway. 
The Amiga has a good - if not very 
robust - PSU, so dirty mains would 
cause the machine to crash very 
spectacularly. Also, I doubt the 
Department of Transport would 
accept any responsibility for exhaust 
emissions fouling up your drive. 

• Have you checked for any signs of 
viruses? Many PD libraries will fix 
you up with a disk of virus checkers if 
you don't already have one. Some 
viruses can create the effect that your 
Amiga is displaying. 

• Are you removing disks while the 
drive access light is still on? This is 
one of the best ways to create an 
error, because the disk surface can 
get dragged across the read/write 
head while it's still spinning. (This 
can damage your disk drive 
mechanism too.) Remember that 
when you write to a disk, the Amiga 
updates entries in the root directory, 
and possibly the bitmap, obout a half 
to one second after it finishes writing 
the file. You must let this operation 
complete. Resetting the machine 
before the disk has finished being 
updated can have the same effect. 

• Are you using good quality disks? 
There's nothing wrong with 
unbranded disks, but they can vary 
greatly in terms of quality. Also, high- 
density disks are thought to cause 
problems - apart from being on 
unnecessary expense. 

• Have you tried using Diskdoctor 
on disks after they develop a fault? 
This simple little program (only 
accessible from the Shell) can rescue 
a lot of disks from the bin. If the root 
directory fails - that is, if the Amiga 
can't find the disk's details - it will be 
renamed 'Lazarus'. This is quite 
normal, so don't assume that it is 
some curious virus effect On a 
similar note, the PD program 
TurboBackup will sometimes foil and 
rename the destination disk 'TUBU'. 
Once again, this is not a virus but it 
is worth watching out for 

In any case, if the machine is still 
under guarantee, get it checked by 
your dealer, Do not be tempted to 
get a disk cleaning kit or realign the 
heads yourself - you will almost 
certainly do more damage than you 
will fix. MS 



Q 



Z80 cross-assembler 

Do you know of a Z80 cross- 
assembler for the A500 on 



general commercial release or 
in the public domain? It would 
be preferable if the software 
could port its assembled code 
out through the Amiga's serial 
port to the computer on which 
the code will be executed (in 
my case, the Cambridge 
Computer Z88 or the Sinclair 
ZX Spectrum). 

Keith Rickard 



A 



I have been unable to find either a 
PD or commercial Z80 cross- 
assembler for the Amiga. I know that 
there are several available for the 
IBM PC, so perhaps you should think 
about one of the PC emulators for the 
Amiga. You can find out about the 
emulators available for the A500 in 
answer number four on page 22 of 
this very issue JR 




Printer cabling query 

I have an Amiga 500/ a 
Brother HR10 daisy wheel 
printer and a Panasonic 24-pin 
printer, both of which have 
been connected for some time 
via the A500 s parallel port. 
The HR 10 used to be 
connected to a C64 using an 
RS232C serial interface, where 
it worked perfectly. To avoid 
having to constantly change 
the cables over at the back of 
the computer, I recently re- 
connected the HR 10 to the 
serial port of the A500. 

Now begins the problem. 
When I first print a letter or 
document everything works 
perfectly. But, if I try to print a 
second page, or second copy, 
all I get is garbage consisting 
mainly of '@' signs and a few 
numbers. This happens 
regardless of which program 
is running. The only way to 
print legibly again is to go into 
Preferences and click on Use'! 

The dip switch settings 
match those in Preferences: 
1,200 baud, 8-bit and even 
parity. In addition, I have a 
51 2 -byte buffer, 1 stop bit and 
RTS/CTS handshaking selected 
in Preferences. 

What am I doing wrong? 

Peter Richards 

Haywards Heath 

West Sussex 



A 



Your problem seems to stem from 
handshaking. Somewhere along the 
line the printer is going out of sync 
with the Amiga. Clicking on 'Use 
Preferences' probably resets data in 
the serial buffer and this might be 



partly or wholly to blame. Serial 
information is sent one (binary) bit at 
a time, so even a single bit going 
astray will throw the entire operation 
to the dogs 

Overall, this is a tricky problem 
which is difficult to analyse without 
looking at the individual setup - there 
is more to serial communications than 
just baud rale (transmission speed), 
parity (error checking) and 
handshaking. Three other lines ore 
used to control devices such as 
printers- DSR (Data Set Ready); DTR 
(Data Terminal Ready); and SSD 
(Supervisory Send Data). If that isn't 
complex enough to work out, you will 
probably have to ensure the DIP 
switches are set correctly on the 
printer for these loo. 

I'm quite prepared to throw this 
to other readers who may have 
solved this problem with a serial 
printer. In the meantime, I suggest 
you experiment with different 
methods of handshaking - Xon/Xoff, 
or even none at all if the printer will 
let you select that option. MS 



Q 



Power board RAM 

It was said in the June 1991 
issue of Amiga Shopper that 
the KCS Powerboard can only 
access 640K in PC mode. Can 
the AT-Once access all 1Mb of 
my Amiga memory? Also, can 
I buy Compugraphic fonts for 
Pagesetfer II from a PD 
library, as they are rather 
expensive commercially? 

David Proffitt 

Parbold 

Wigan 



A 



Yes, by clicking on a few buttons the 
AT-Once installation software will 
allow you to decide how much of the 
memory you have fitted is available 
to the PC. 

Compugraphic fonts are the 
copyright of, Agfa and you won't 
find any (legally) in the public 
domain. Compared to the price of 
single PostScript fonts for the PC (as 
much as £120), £100 for the 35 
faces m the CG Outline Fonts pack 
seems a snip. JW 

Q 

Do I have a virus? 

About a week ago, I got a 
phone call from my uncle who 
had just returned from a trip 
to Germany where he had 
bought an A500. The call was 
regarding a virus that he 
thought he had caught. I 
popped round, armed with a 
few virus killers, but when I 
got there a different story 



emerged. It appears that the 
day before, a message 
appeared on the screen which, 
when translated, said 
something about a virus. After 
this, the screen promptly 

continued on poge21 



Vector Tips 

Steven Hayes of Worcester 
has some points to make 
about Vector Check, the 
assembly language 
program listed in issues one 
and two: 



I thought I would just inform 
you of a couple of changes I 
had to make to get Vector 
Check to work. I use the 
Devpac 2.14 assembler, so 
this missive is mainly for 
Devpac users. 

The first minor change 
was in the first half of the 
listing - the third line, to be 
precise. The 'incdir' 
statement was followed by 
dh0:include/'. I presume 
that this was either a typing 
error or that the author has 
his assembler program and 
libraries on a hard disk. 
Floppy disk users should 
change 'dhOV to 'dfOV. 

The second minor change 
was also in the h'rst half of 
the listing, at the line 
labelled '.skO'. The change 
in question is to put brackets 
around the 'a0' register, 
because Devpac gets upset if 
you leave single registers on 
their own. 

As I said, these alterations 
are, as far as I know, for 
the Devpac assembler. I 
appreciate that with any 
listing of this kind it is very 
difficult for the author to 
produce a version that is 
guaranteed to work on all 
machines and assemblers. 

Thanks mightily or your 
comments, Steve, five 
pounds is travelling towards 
you right now. 

As you rightly point out, 
the reason for the 'incdir 
dhOtinclude' is that Jotyon 
has his system set up on a 
hard disk. This path has to 
be changed depending on 
the way the system has 
been set up. 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1991 



19 



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Subject lo availability, despatch is normally withm 24 hours ot receipt of 
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DELIVERY CHARGES: UK Mamand I not r*c/itanos| 

Sma« consumables 4 Oesoatched by post please checfc 

software items diarges when ordering 

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20 



AMIGA ANSWERS 



po g e19 

turned black-and-white. I've 
done everything I can think of 
to return the display to colour: 
different leads, tuning the TV, 
using another modulator and 
so on, but still no joy. 

At this point I inserted KDV 
3. It gave a message saying: 
"Warning, something is 
resident in memory." It 
seemed to call it 'KickTag Ptr 
202a2'. Selecting the option to 
kill, I was confronted with the 

following message: "Warning, 
something is intercepting Dolo 
calls to 204ac." 

I then checked the disks 
and all were OK. Is the above 
something in the operating 
system that KDV 3 does not 
comprehend, or is there such a 
thing as a virus that can 
permanently reside in the 
computer and do permanent 
damage? 

Anyway, the machine is 
now on its way back to 
Frankfurt and my uncle will 
now purchase one in the UK. 

Lee Dashwood 

Bournemouth 

Dorset 



A 



Your colour problem sounds to me 
like a totally unrelated hardware 
fault. You should have no problems 
with your new machine. Make sure 
you write-protect all the Workbench 
disks and, if possible, do not use any 
of the disks that you currently own 
until you receive a virus killer that can 
definitely cure your disks. JR 

Q 

Which CAD package? 

I am completing a City & 
Guilds AutoCAD course and 
would like to find a 
reasonable CAD program for 
the Amiga 500. 

I have expanded my 
Amiga to 1Mb of RAM, and I 
have an external drive, Philips 
CM8833II monitor and a 
Citizen Swift 24-pin colour dot 
matrix printer. 

Using IntroCAD is not 
particularly good, due to 
flickering, and the program 
leaves a bit to be desired. I 
considered X~CAD but cannot 
get a program or demo disk to 
evaluate it and check if the 24- 
pin printer is compatible. 

Cliff Lowe 

Ashford 

Kent 



There is no way that a virus could 
affect the hardware of an A500 in 
any way. There is also no way that a 
virus could permanently reside in the 
computer hardware. 

However, the response that KDV 
3 is giving does suggest that a virus 
is in memory. It may be a virus thai 
KDV 3 is not aware of by name. The 
operating system can confuse virus 
killers in one particular circumstance. 
If you have the line SETPATCH R in 
your srstartup-sequence file, some 
virus killers will tell you that: 
"ColdCapture has been altered". I 
am not aware of anything in the 
operating system that would alter the 
KickTagPtr though. Viruses often use 
the KickTagPtr, and often intercept 
the DolO calls. If it is a new virus that 
KDV 3 does not know about, your 
disks will check out as clean. 

So, you can be sure that there is 
something in memory that is 
deliberately staying there after reset 
and is also affecting disk drive 
access. There are some utilities that 
do this, such as PD programs that 
switch between DFO: and DF1 : as the 
boot drive, and even some memory- 
resident virus killers (though I very 
much doubt that KDV 3 would detect 
itself as a virus). 

I would try getting a newer virus 
killer to try on your disks. Failing that, 
send a copy of one of your suspect 
disks to one of the virus killer authors, 
it may be a new virus that they have 
not yet come across. 



A 



You have the perfect setup for X-CAD 
Designer, a neat 2D program which 
produces monochrome plots at 
1 80dpi on any Epson LQ<ompatible. 
Since your printer is capable of 
360dpi, you might like to try the PLT: 
plotter emulator on Fish Disk 467. 
This neat but fiddly piece of software 
allows any Preferences printer to 
accept HP-GL commands, so you 
should be able to create colour plots 
using it. If you're really concerned 
about output quality, you could dump 
the plot to an IBM 3.5-inch disk and 
use a pen -plotter at college. 

There is a demo of X-CAD 
Designer (printing and saving 
disabled) available for download on 
CIX, but I haven't seen it anywhere 
else. The program has exceedingly 
fast zoom and redraw, and therefore 
working in stable, medium resolution 
isn't too great a problem. X-CAD 
Designer cannot directly read 
AutoCAD DXF files, but converter 
programs (one of which is 
shareware) are available. SCR 

Q 

Compugraphic fonts 

I recently bought one of Gold 
Disk's Publisher Series Type 
disks, which contains 
Compugraphic fonts 

(Garamond, Futura and 
Antique Olive) for use with 



Professional Page. The fonts 
are all roman versions of the 
typefaces. To get italics or bold 
text, PPage has to slant or 
heavy-up the roman font 
because the true italic and 
bold fonts are not on the disk. 

If I use bold or italics in a 
document, save it to an EPSF 
file and take it along to a DTP 
bureau for outputting to a 
typesetting machine, will bold 
or italics text appear in the 
printed output? 

Paul Seale 
Burgess Hill 
East Sussex 



A 



Q 



A 



What PPage puts in the EPSF file is 
the name of the typefaces to use. 
Even if you haven't got the actual 
italic face, PPage will recognise that 
you want something in italics (or 
bold) and add a line in the PostScript 
file requesting the italic face to be 
used. The typesetting machine will 
read this information and then use its 
own built-in faces of the same name, 
if they exist. If they don't exist, the 
bureau will either have to change the 
face to something else, or download 
to the typesetting machine the exact 
one you require. 

The best thing to do is talk to the 
bureau is doing the work for you. 
Take an example printout from your 
dot-matrix printer or whatever, and 
tell them the exact names of the 
typefaces you have used. Some faces 
are called one name on one 
particular DTP system and another 
name on the typesetting machine. For 
example, Compugraphic's 
Triumvirate is the same as PostScript's 
Helvetica. The bureau will know all 
about this. 

As for the free PPoge 2 upgrade 
- yes, I know of some PPage 1 .3 
owners who have received it. It takes 
a while though. Consider contacting 
Gold Disk again after six to eight 
weeks. They have a legal obligation 
to to supply the free upgrade, even to 
customers outside the States JW 



RAM disk icons 

What is the correct path name 
to call up the RAM disk icon so 
that I can edit it on Iconed? I 
have tried RAM disk: but I 
simply cannot seem to find the 
right path. 

Paul Compton 

Fareham 

Hants 



RAM:. Don't forget that .info is 
added for you. For instance, to 
access Mylcon from the RAM disk 
just enter: 

RAM:MyIcon 
MS 

Q 

Modem problems 

I have an A500, second drive, 
0.5Mb upgrade and Pace 
Husky Linnet 2123 Modem. 
Spurred on by your first 
issue's comms feature/ I 
bought NComm and JRComm. 

I couldn't get anywhere 
with the modem, so can you 
summarise the NComm 
commands I should use to get 
the system working? 

Nick Kenworthy 

Lower Kirkgate 

Wakefield 



A 



There are two paths actually, and 
RAM disk: should normally work, but 
the safest and simplest way is to use 



The Linnet is a Hayes-compatible 
modem capable of V.2 1 (300 baud) 
and V.23 (1,200/75 baud) 
operation. Neither NComm or 
JRComm directly support V.23, so 
we'll stick to 300 baud. 

In NComm's Serial menu, set 
Baud Rate to 300, Data Length to 8 
bits, Parity to None, 1 Stop Bit, Full 
Duplex and Handshaking to None. 
This setting, known as 8nl, should 
allow you to connect to most of the 
bulletin boards around. 

Try typing the key sequence AT 

(ontinued on page 24 



I SEE NO TIPS 

Don't need our help? Reckon 
you can do a better job of 
giving advice and tips on a 
subject? Well do it! As well 
as asking for advice, we want 
you to give it too. If you have 
discovered a useful tip or two 
for any program, hardware, 
language etc, then send it to 
us and if it's any good we will 
use it on the Amiga Answers 
page and bung you £5 in 
return. If you think we have 
got an answer wrong, or 
have failed to give the full 
picture, then give us what you 
think is the right answer - we 
might even cough up some 
cash for that too. So don't just 
sit there, get tipping and help 
out your fellow Amiga 
owners. Send your cunning 
solutions to: Amiga Tips, 
Amiga Shopper, 30 Mon- 
mouth Street, Bath BA1 2BW. 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1991 



21 



AMIGA ANSWERS 



things 



o 



What is all this business about 
fatter Agnus and fast and chip RAM? 



The Amiga has a Motorola 68000 16/32- 
bit processor. This is the chip which has 
control over the rest of the computer - 
the 'brain'. It has an address space of 
16Mb; the Amiga is set up in such a way 
that 8Mb of this is available for random 
access memory (RAM). On the Amiga, 
not all of this addressable memory is the 
same and the difference stems from the 
fact that part of the RAM address space 
is shared by both the 68000 processor 
and the Amiga's three custom chips. It is 
this shared memory that is commonly 
referred to as 'chip' memory. 

The three custom chips (called 
Agnus, Paula and Denise) handle a 
number of specific tasks involving 
graphics, general screen display 
operations, direct memory access (DMA) 
and so on. (The blitter, the device which 
can move pixel data around the screen 
at speeds approaching one million pixels 
per second, is part of the Agnus chip). 
The amount of memory that these 
original custom chips could share was 
limited to that definable within a 19-bit 
address space. This meant that no matter 
how much memory was available in the 
machine, the custom chips could only 
access the lower 512K. Since Amiga 
graphics and animation programs have 
grown in size and power in recent 
months, the 512K limitation has become 
noticeably restrictive. 

Several years ago, Commodore 
began working on an enhanced chip set 
(ECS) and this included a replacement for 
Agnus called 'Fat Agnus'. This new 
version, so called because of its physical 
shape, effectively does the same job as 
the original chip, but reduces the support 
component chip count - all clock 
generation for the Amiga system, for 
instance, is now incorporated into Fat 
Agnus, as are the control signals for 
handling chip RAM access. 

The big difference as far as chip 
memory goes, though, is that Fat Agnus 
now has address lines which can access 
twice as much memory. Hence a machine 
fitted with Fat Agnus has 1 Mb of shared 
address space and so can have 1Mb of 
chip memory fitted. 

The easiest way to find out which 
Agnus you have is to take the cover off 
and have a look - the original Agnus 
chip has a part number of 8361 , Fat 
Agnus on the other hand has a 8370 
part number. Unfortunately, doing this 



... you always wanted to know about 
the Amiga - and weren't afraid to ask 



will invalidate your warranty, so 
perhaps the best idea is to ask the 
dealer from which you purchased the 
machine to check the serial number with 
Commodore technical support. They 
should be able to give your dealer the 
necessary information over the phone. 
Another possibility is to use a software- 
based check - there is a public domain 
program called VectaCheck on one of the 
Fish disks which can detect the presence 
of the Fat Agnus chip. 

It's not a difficult job to swap over 
a few chips, but nevertheless the only 
official way to get your machine fattened 
up is through Commodore's official 
service engineers FMG (« 0733-391234) 
who will provide, and install, a Fat 
Agnus chip for £80 (not £20 as stated 
last month). 

Fast RAM is so-called because 
processor accesses to it are quicker than 
to chip RAM. This is because the Amiga's 
bus contention scheme is such that the 
main 68000 processor can sometimes 
get locked out of the chip memory 
address space because of something 
known as cycle-stealing. One graphics- 
intensive situation in which this can occur 
is during DMA-oriented high-speed blitter 
operations. A program running in chip 
memory could therefore be slowed down 
at these times. Some clever hardware 
tricks, however, allow the 68000 
processor, even while locked out of chip 
memory space, to still access memory 
outside this region. This non-chip 
memory region, or fast memory, is 
therefore an ideal place for putting your 
executable programs. For maximum 
speed you would ideally want to have a 
reasonable amount of fast memory also 
available - programs running in fast 
memory would then not be slowed down 
by any custom chip cycle- stealing 
operations. 



o 



Where can I obtain a suitable 
printer driver for the Canon BJ- lOe 
bubblejet printer? 



Although I don't know of a direct driver, 
there is a driver for the BJ-130 printer 
available, and you can use this if you 
switch your printer to BJ-130 emulation 
mode. The driver is on Jamdisk #2 (from 
the magazine Jam, produced by the 
multi-talented Jeff Walker tr 0895 
74449) for £2, or can be obtained from 
Canon on 081-773 3173. Alternatively, 
Dixons should now be stocking it along 
with the printer. 



o 



What are viruses? 



Viruses are unpleasant little programs. 
They come on disks, either as a file or in 
the part of the disk known as the 
bootblock - the part of an autobooting 
disk which is read when the Amiga is 
reset. When an infected disk is placed in 
the Amiga's drive, it will load into 
memory and subsequently copy itself to 
any more disks that are inserted. 

Viruses tend to be small and are 
very good at hiding themselves. They 
weedle themselves into programs 
carrying out legitimate Amiga functions, 
ready to corrupt files or crash the system 
at their leisure. 

A virus cannot survive a power 
cut. Switching your Amiga off between 
disk changes ensures that any resident 
viruses will be destroyed before they get 
a chance to replicate. Neither can a virus 
copy itself onto a disk that has its write- 
protect tab open. 

Because constantly switching your 
Amiga on and off is a drastic step to 
take, it is a good idea to get a virus 
hunter/killer from the public domain. 
These recognise most (but not all) viruses 
and will remove them from disks or 
memory. That way you can check out 
each new disk as it comes into your 
possession. 



o 



How can / run PC software on my 
A500? 



You need a PC emulator. There are now 
three choices for the A500: the Vortex 
AT-Once card (IBM AT emulation) for 
£199, the KCS Powerboard (IBM XT 
emulation) for £229.99, and a new 
software IBM XT emulator (including 
hard disk support) available for $30 
from the author, Mark Tomlinson, 30 
Kimer St, Christchurch 9, New Zealand. 
There is a PD demo version of this 
emulator available from bulletin boards 
and PD companies, which is limited to 15 
minutes activity and only 2Mb of hard 
disk space. The AT-Once card was 
reviewed in issue three of AS; the KCS 
Powerboard was reviewed in issue two. 



o 



Is it possible to expand my A500 
beyond 1Mb? 



There are now several memory 
expansions for the A500 which will take 
it past 1Mb. The Cortex Expansion from 
Memory Expansion Systems (^ 051-236 
0480) starts at £279 for 2Mb of RAM, 



22 



AMIGA 5MOPPF R • I55UE 4 • AUGUST Ivvl 



AMIGA ANSWERS 



and can take a maximum of 8Mb. It 
plugs into the Amiga's side expansion 
slot, but duplicates this slot so that other 
things, such as hard disks, can be 
plugged in afterwards. The Supra 500RX 
RAM expansion unit can take up to 8Mb. 
Like the Cortex system, it plugs into the 
expansion slot and duplicates it for the 
addition of extra peripherals. Prices start 
at £169 for 2Mb. It is available from, 
among others, WTS ■ 0582 491949. 

If you are considering doing 
serious amounts of work on your Amiga, 
it might be worthwhile investing in a 
hard disk drive. Most of these can have 
RAM put inside them. Check out our 
'Hard Drives On Trior feature in issue 
one for more details. 



o 



What is a printer driver? 



A printer driver is a program. It converts 
output from other Amiga programs into 
a form that a particular printer can 
understand. This is necessary because 
printers from different manufacturers use 
different internal codes to accomplish the 
same effects (such as bold, underline, 
italics and things like that). 

The Amiga sends ASCII codes to 
the printer device (PRT:). ASCII is a 
standardised code used to represent 
alphanumeric characters. Along with 
these it sends ANSI escape codes to 
make various changes in output format 
(such as switching to italic or bold). See 
Appendix D of the A500 manual for a 
list of the ANSI escape codes. 

These codes sent to PRT: are then 
translated by the installed printer driver 
and sent to the printer via the serial or 
parallel interface. For details of how to 
install a printer driver, see Chapter 6 of 
the A500 manual. 



o 



Can I get my graphics to print 
without leaving a white bar 
between each line? 



Just about every one of the cheaper 
printers (less than £2000) suffers from 
this problem. Banding, as it is known, 
usually occurs because of slight 
inaccuracies in the paper feed 
mechanism. You can achieve better 
results by selecting 'Single sheet' from 
Preferences and using manual feed 
paper in your printer. 



o 



What hardware and software do I 
need to be able to digitise colour 
photographs and do video titling? 



You will need some kind of digitiser to 
capture your colour photographs. There 
are some genlocks that contain digitisers 



beginning to appear in the UK. (for 
example, the VideoMaster VM-2 genlock, 
reviewed in issue one, which is 
distributed by Power Computing tr 0234 
843388). This is useful because you're 
going to need a genlock as well if you 
want to do video titling. 

However, you will probably find it 
cheaper to buy a digitiser, such as 
DigiView (if you simply require static 
images from a video camera), or a setup 
along the lines of Rombo's Complete 
Colour Solution if you ever want to grab 
images from video as well (although the 
video player you are using must have a 
perfect still-frame facility). 

You will need at least 1Mb of 
memory (and preferably more) to grab 
high-quality (HAM interlace) images at 
full TV resolution (overscan). 

On the software side, you would 
need only three programs to get you 
going. Firstly, the tiHer - for cost and 
features I recommend Big Alternative 
Scroller (aren't there any other miers out 
there for £50 which scroll, crawl, have a 
good selection of fonts and look OK?) 
You will also need something for making 
adjustments to your digitised photos - 
either Photon Paint 2 or DigiPaint 3 are 
recommended here. And finally, if you 
want a good all-round paint program, 
with an animator thrown in, then add 
Deluxe Paint III to the list - it's still hard 
to beat in terms of value for money. 



o 



How do I install a disk when I only 
have one drive? 



Installing a disk means that it will 
become autobooting, so that it can be 
inserted at the Workbench prompt 
instead of the Workbench disk. 

To install a disk, enter the Shell or 
CLI and type: 

Install ? 

When an AmigaDOS command is typed 
with a question mark instead of a list of 
arguments, the command is loaded into 
memory in the normal way; however, 
instead of executing, it presents you with 
a command template. This is 
AmigaDOS's way of explaining the type 
of arguments it expects. Because the 
command is loaded into memory once 
the template appears, you can remove 
the Workbench disk and replace it with 
the disk you want to install. 

Having done this, type 'dfO:' and 
press [Return]. 

You need to copy some of the 
system files from your Workbench disk 
to this one in order for your programs to 
run properly from an autoboot. 



Are there any lightpens or graphics 
tablets available for the Amiga? 

Lightpens are rather old hat, since they 
are inaccurate, tiring to use, and tend to 
make your monitor very smudgy. Unless 
you find one very, very cheaply I would 
never recommend them to anyone. 

Graphics tablets use pressure 
sensors (reasonably cheap) or use 
electromagnetic induction (accurate) to 
locate the pointer. Stylus pointers are 
generally preferred for artwork, since 
they act like a fixed-width pen. Puck 
pointers (like an accurate mouse) are 
ideal for CAD since they allow point- 
perfect tracing. 

Two types are available from the 
Amiga Centre Scotland (» 031 5574242): 
the Summa Sketch A4 graphics tablet at 
£569.88 and the Cherry A3 graphics 
tablet at £587.50. 



<D 



I'm puzzled by the various sub- 
directories with ffie fonts supplied 
on the Extras disk. How do I get 
them across to be included with 
the fonts on the Workbench disk? 
Will I also need to run FixFonts 
afterwards? 



The sub-directory structure for the fonts 
on the Extras disk is exactly the same as 
the corresponding structure for the fonts 
on the Workbench disk. All fonts are 
stored in the directory 'fonts:'. This holds 
several sub-directories, each 
corresponding to a different typeface, 
such as Pica or Times. A different file for 
each font size is stored in each one of 
these sub-directories. For example, the 
Courier directory contains files for point 
sizes of 11, 13, 15, 18 and 24. 

As well as these files, the fonts: 
directory also contains a file for each 
typeface. These files contain general 
information about the typefaces. The file 
for the Courier font is called, not 
surprisingly. Courier. font'. To copy the 
Courier font on to the Workbench disk, 
proceed as follows: 

copy c:copy ram: 

copy c:makedir ram: 

Then insert the Extras disk and type: 

copy "Extras 1.3: foots/Courier. font" ram: 

nakedir ram:Courier 

copy "Extras 1.3:fonts/Courier" raoiCourier all 

Insert the Workbench disk and type: 

copy ram:Couritr.font SYS:fontB 

nakedir SYS:fonti/Courier 

copy r«:Courier SYS: foots/Courier all 

You only need to use FixFonts. when a 
new point size is added to an existing 
font, to stop the system getting confused 
as to which sizes are available for use. 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1 99 1 



23 



AMIGA ANSWERS 



CMl«Md from page 21 

[Return] into NComm, and your 
modem should reply with 'OK'. If it 
doesn't, there is something wrong 
with your setup. If all the cables are 
OK, then there is just a possibility 
that your Amiga's serial port is in 
need of repair. 

NComm should come set up for 
Hayes-compatible modems, but the 
modem can be dialled using the ATD 
command. To dial the number 123 
4567, you would type ATD 1 234567 
[Return], and the modem would 
connect by itself This would be 
indicated by the CONNECT 
message, and then the sign-on siring 
from the BBS, SCR 



a 



Auto-booting disks 

Having written a couple of 
short scrolly intros using PD 
programs, such as DOPE Intro 
maker. Space Writer and so 
on, making a list of all my 
disks using KindWords, 
completing a couple of 
masterpieces on DPaint II, and 
composing a short musical 
intro using SoundTracker, how 
do I put them all on one auto- 
booting disk and get them to 
run? I realise that certain 
directories have to be present 
on the disk, but which ones 
and how do I get them there? 

Keith Pattenden 
Swinton 

South Yorkshire 



A 



There is no easy answer to a 
question such as this, because every 
application requires different 
directories. Large, Workbench-based 
products will usually need a complete 
set of directories and a subset of 
AmigaDOS commands, whereas a 
music tracker such as MED or 
SoundTracker may only need a few. 
In fact, some demos throw away the 
middle man and run directly from the 
boot sectors just like a game. 

A very simple boot disk will 
require just an S directory. This 
allows you to put the 'startup- 
sequence' script on the disk and start 

the application from there. 

Briefly, the other directories are 
assigned as follows: 



C - AmigaDOS commands. Any 

executable file placed in here can be 
run automatically from the startup 
sequence 

DEVS - Devices. These are the 

software interfaces that drive the 
interface hardware, such as the 
printer, serial port and so on. Also 
here are the system-configuration 
(required by Intuition), printer drivers, 
mountlist and keyboard setup files. 



LIBS - Libraries. External libraries of 
functions available to any software 
which requires them Workbench, for 
instance, uses the icon library to 
handle the icons. 
L - Handlers. Various other little 
goodies used by the system. For 
instance, Shell-seg provides the 
resident code for the Shell CU 
extension, RAM-Handler drives the 
RAM disk and so on. 
FONTS - The disk-based font 
definitions. You'll only need these if 
the program requires extra fonts. The 
default system font. Topaz, is already 

included in the ROM However, the 
inter-relation in the system means that 
if you need to used disk-based fonts, 
you must also have the 

diskfont.library in DEVS 

As you can see, this is a very 
complex question and the only 
answer is often trial and error. With 
experience you will get to know 
which files are superfluous and which 
are required. To get you started, an 
interesting piece of shareware called 
WhatIS can help you determine 
which 'resources' a program 
requires. It is available from most 
good PD libraries. You might also 
like to try Mastering AmigaDOS 
Volume One (ISBN 1-873308-00-0). 
(not another plug Mark? - Ed). 
Although not intended for beginners, 
it covers boot disks in great depth. I 
know, because I wrote it MS 



sequence (using an editor such as 
ED) to display a clock while 
Workbench is running. CR 




24-hour clock 

Following the advice given in 
the May issue of your 
magazine, I now have a 
digital clock displayed when 
Workbench is running. I now 
wish to go one step further 
and have the clock in 24-hour 
mode with seconds and the 
date displayed. How do I alter 
the clock default settings so 
that this new mode becomes 
the norm? 

M Norman 

Ripon 

N Yorkshire 



A 



The possible display options for the 

clock can be shown by typing in 
'clock ?' from the Shell. Making it 
display in 24-hour mode with 
seconds and date can be done by 
replacing the 'run clock' line in your 
startup-sequence with the following; 

run <nil: >nil: clock 
digitall=240,0 24hour seconds 
date 

For those readers who haven't seen 
the May issue, this is a line that can 
be inserted into your startup 



Q 



A 



You are right in thinking that a 
command from the Workbench disk 
needs to be copied over. However, it 
is so small that you shouldn't have to 
delete anything from the Mavis disk. 
The command you want is stored 
in the C directory of the Workbench 
disk. Boot up your machine with this 
disk and open the Shell. Then copy 
the copy command to the RAM disk 
by typing: 

copy c/copy ram: 

Also make a copy of the SetClock 
command; 



copy c/SetClock ram: 

Then insert the Mavis disk and type: 

copy ram: SetClock dfO:c 

And that should do the trick You 
might also like to change the 
keyboard from an American to a UK 
layout. To do this, you will need to 
copy several things to the RAM disk 
from Workbench, as follows: 

copy system/SetMap ram: 
copy c/ed ram: 



Accessing the clock 

Having finally decided mat it 
was time I learned to type 
properly, I bought the 
excellent Mavis Beacon 
Teaches Typing. The program 
keeps a record of your 
progress, with date and time, 
in a script file. As I wanted the 
program to access the battery- 
backed clock that I have fitted, 
I added the following line to 
the startup- sequence after 
loadWB: 

SetClock >NIL: opt load 

The response from the Amiga 
is Unknown Command 
SetClock'. I find this surprising, 
as the program uses the 
system clock, so why not the 
battery backed one? 

Presumably I'll need to add 
some commands from my 
Workbench disk, but I don't | 
know which ones. Can you 
help? There isn't much free 
space on the disk, but I don't 
mind deleting the 'Resume' 
program. 

SJ Ellison 
Dunstable 



copy devs/keymaps/gb ram: 
copy c/raakedir ram: 

Now insert the Mavis disk. A 
subdirectory holding the keyboard 
layouts has to be created within the 
'devs' directory. To do this, type; 

makedir dfO:devs/keymaps 

Then the gb keymap has to be 
copied into the new directory: 

copy ram:gb dfO:devs/keymaps 

Next, the SetMop command has to 
be copied to the disk. This command 
resides in the System directory, but 
it'll work equally well if placed in the 
C directory. Copy it by typing: 

copy ram:SetMap dfO:c 

Finally, the startup-sequence has to 
be edited so that it takes account of 
the new keymap: 

ed dfO:s/startup-secfuence 

Insert the following line between the 
stack command and the LoadWb 
command: 

setmap gb 

From now on, the quotes key will be 
where you expect it to be. CR 



Q 



Jerky games 

I own an A500 with Kickstart 
1 .3. It is fitted with an A501 
RAM expansion and has two 
Amiga 101 1 disk drives. How 
I can add more memory to my 
Amiga. I play a lot of games, 
mostly flight simulators, but 
they tend to be a bit on the 
jerky side. Most games offer 
you the chance to sacrifice 
graphic detail, sound or 
animation scenes to enhance 
gameplay smoothness. I read 
your guide to hard disk drives 
in the first issue, and I think 
that this is what I need. If I 
bought a hard disk drive, like 
a GVP or an A 590, would this 
make the games run better 
and allow better graphics? 

If fitted, would this affect 
the warranty on my machine, 
and could the A501 RAM 
expansion still be used or 
would I have to remove it? 

Stephen Bell 

WestcliH on Sea 

Essex 



A 



A hard disk drive would not improve 
the graphics on your games. A hard 

cMtimttd en pog« 26 



24 



AMKiA SHOPPER • ISSUE A • AUGUST 1001 




POWER COMPUTING 



LOW 



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This exciting new board combines all the features of GVP' s bestproductstodate.lt 
consists of a 68030 Accelerator board and a full SCSI hard disk controller. It is even 
possible to mount a slim line hard disk directly onto the card. As a 68030 processor is 
being used, the 9MB memory limit of the Amiga is no longer a problem, and large 
amounts of memory can be added using GVP's special design of 32 -bit Si mm 
modules. 



• Comes with 1MB RAM installed (4MB on 33MHz version 

• 22MHz or 33MHz 68030 with 68882 numeric coprocessor 

• Expand up to 13MB (22MHz) or 16MB (33MHz) using custom Simms 

• Full Series 2 SCSI interface connecting directly to the 68030 bus 

22MHzCombowith1MBRAM 
33MHz Combo with 4MBRAM 
40MB SCSI hard disk for Combo 
114MBSCSIharddiskforCombo 



£799 

£1495 

£249 

£449 



GVP Series2RAM Card 

• Comes with2MBasstandard 

• Expand up to8MB (Using Simms 

• Half-card for the A2000 or A1 500 

2MB £200 4MB £275 8MB £345 

NexusHardCards 

• Highspeed controller 

• Upto8MBRAM onboard 

• Fully autobooting 

• Compatiblewith GVPand ICD 



GVPSeries2Hard Cards 




Bare 

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52MB Quantum 11mS 

114MBNEC20mS 



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£449 

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• Upto8MBSimmRAM on board 

• Fully autobooting 

• Supports external SCSI devices 

Bare £209 

40MB £369 

52MBQuantum11mS £429 

H4MBNEC20mS £549 



AMIGA 1500 




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• Two 3V?" floppy disc drives 

• Two input sockets for joystick & 
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• CPU fully expandable 

• Accepts all standard Amiga 2000 
peripherals 

Software 

• TheWorks-Platinum Edition 

• DeluxPaint III 

• Populous the Promised Lands 

• Sim City & Terrain Editor 

• Battle Chess 

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Basic A1500 Pack £715 

A1500 Pack& PhilipsColour 

Monitor £995 

A1500 Pack, Monitor, 52MB Hard 

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Other combinations available, phone 
for details 

Other Professional Products 

ICD Flicker free video for Amiga 
1500/2000 £250 

600MB Optical hard disk £2995 

200MBTapestreamer £715 

20MB Floppy drive £815 

Amiga 2000 Internal floppy drive £50 

1MBx4ZIPRAMfor Amiga 3000 

(per chip) £30 

IMBSimmsforGVP&Nexuscards £40 










*3S 




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• : 



ICA ANSWERS 



continued from pogc 24 

disk is like a floppy disk, but bigger 
and faster. It means that sections of a 
game can be loaded into your 
computer more quickly and that you 
won't hove to do any disk swapping. 
But it will not actually change the 
speed at which your computer 
displays the graphics or plays the 
game. The only thing that would do 
this is an accelerator card (see Phil 
South's article on page 29 of Issue 
3). Even then, the increase in speed 
might not be as great as you would 
hope, and you would have to be a 
pretty dedicated flight simulator fon 
to spend so much money to improve 
your games. 

Fitting an external hard disk 
would not invalidate your warranty. 
Most drives connect to the Amiga's 
expansion slot at the side, leaving the 

trapdoor free for your A501 RAM 
expansion. If you want more than 
1Mb of RAM, this must be added to 
the same slot as the hard drive. There 
are two ways to do this: most drives 
have space on their circuit board for 
RAM chips - for example, the A590 

has space for up to 2Mb, whereas 
the GVP Impact 11+ has space for a 
whole 8Mb. 

Alternatively, the Supra 500XP 
actually duplicates the Amiga's 
expansion port so that, once it is 
fitted, an external RAM expansion 
can still be added. CR 



Q 



Al - what's it about? 

I am at college studying for 
three A-levels and have 
recently acquired an A500. 
What sort of programs do I 
need to store my college work 
where it is easily accessible? 
Could you make some 
recommendations? My Amiga 
has been upgraded to 1Mb. 
In the Introduction of the 
users' manual supplied with 
the A500 there is a brief 
mention of artificial 
intelligence. Could you pass on 
any information you have on 
this subject and on the subject 
of robotics for the Amiga, and 
also any useful addresses? 

Caroline Mathews 
St Austell 

Cornwall 



A 



You don't say what sort of work you 
want to store on your Amiga. If it is 
mostly text, then a word processor is 
your best bet. You can type in all the 
information you want, lay it out and 
easily retrieve it whenever you like. If 
you have a printer, then you can also 
get permanent copies of assignments 

and so on. Two word processors 
worth a look are Protext 5 at 



£149.95 from Arnor (tr 0733 
68909) and Wordworth at £129.95 
from Digito (« 0395 270273). There 
are, of course, many others on the 
market, but these are two of the 
better ones available. 

As far as artificial intelligence is 
concerned, I don't know of any 
dedicated programs for the Amiga 
beyond the pseudo-intelligent Eliza 
type of program. This does nothing 
more than attempt to turn around 
whatever you type into something 
resembling a sensible reply. 

Although the question of what 
exactly constitutes intelligence is a 
thorny one, I think it is safe to say 
that Eliza is most definitely not 
intelligent. If you want to embark on 
your own project, I suggest you get a 
copy of either Lisp or Prolog, both of 
which are used extensively in Al 
research. These are programming 
languages, so you will have to do a 
fair amount of work with them before 
you get your Amiga behaving in 
anything like an intelligent manner. 
There are no commercial versions 
available, but they can be obtained 
from the public domain. AM XLisp is 
on Fred Fish disk 181; Stony Brook 
Prolog is on Fred Fish 140. See the 
PD ads at the end of the magazine to 
find someone who stocks them CR 



Q 



Installing KindWords 

After installing KindWords on 
to my A590 hard drive I am 
asked to modify the startup- 
sequence by adding the 
following three lines after the 
last assign line in the startup- 
sequence file: 

assign KindWords: dhO: KindWords 
assign SuperFcmt: dhO : KindWords 
assign Dictionary: dhO : KindWords 

How do I go about this using 
the Shell? 

E Popple 

Harrogate 

N Yorkshire 



A 



It is irritating to have to do this sort of 
thing to get a software package 
running, but thankfully the process is 
fairly straightforward. To use the 
Shell, open your Workbench window 
and click on the icon labelled 'Shell'. 
If this is not present, then you are 
using an old version of Workbench. 
There is no need to panic, because 
you can use the CLI (Command Line 
Interface), which is similar but not as 
sophisticated. To access the CLI, 
open in the System drawer in the 
Workbench window and then click 
on the icon marked 'CLI'. 

At any rate, a new window 
should now be open in which you 



can type text. It is a good idea to 
expand this window to take up the 
full screen, so you can see exactly 
what is going on. 

The file you must edit, called 
'startup-sequence', is stored in a 
directory called Y. (Directories are 
the Shell's name for drawers - they 
are the same thing.) To get at it, you 
can use the text editing program, ED. 
Type in the following: 

ED s: startup-sequence 

ED will open up another window, in 
which you will see the text of the 
startup-sequence file. Each of the 
lines shown is a program instruction 
that is executed whenever the 
computer is reset. Using the down 
cursor arrow, move through the text 
until you come to the line reading 
'loadWB delay'. With the cursor at 
the very beginning of this line, press 
[Return) ond move the cursor up to 
the start of the blank line. 

Then type in the three lines as 
instructed in the manual, pressing 
RETURN after each one. Be careful to 
insert spaces exactly as shown 
above. Once you have done this, 
press the [Esc] key, followed by X 
and [Return]. The modified startup- 
sequence file will now be written to 
your hard disk. 

Next time you boot, KindWords 
will be properly installed. CR 



Q 



Dimming power light 

On a few programs and 
games, such as Shadow Of 
The Boast II and a PD music 
disk, when it has loaded I 
notice that the power light on 
the computer goes dim. Why? 

Paul Cherry 
Hollywood 

Birmingham 



A 



The power light is connected to a 
part of the Amiga's sound chip called 
a 'low pass filter'. When this filter is 
active, it allows low frequency 
sounds to pass through unaffected, 
but reduces the volume of higher 
frequency sounds. This is useful for 
reducing the hiss of noisy samples. 
The power light is brightest when the 
filter is on. 

When the power light goes dim, 
the filter has been switched off, 
allowing the sounds to come out 
unmolested. CR 



Q 



Pascal isn't working 

I recently got the PCQ Pascal 
compiler from the public 
domain. Unfortunately, I can't 
get it running. I have tried 



typing in the name of the disk 
in the CLI but that fails to load 
it. Could you please tell me 
how to run the program, as 
Pascal programming is 
essential to my college studies. 

David Quigg 

Lanarkshire 

Strathclyde 



A 



Although documentation is supplied 
with PCQ, it can be a trifle confusing 
for the uninitiated. Frankly, you are in 
for a hard time if you don't have a 
working knowledge of the Shell. 

Before any of the example 
programs can be compiled, they must 
be edited and changed. Do this 
using ED from the Shell. If, for 
example, you want to compile the 
Mandelbrot plotting program, 
change to the examples directory 
within the PCQ directory by typing: 

CD AaigaLihOisic339:KQ'exaopies 

You might find the name of your disk 
is different, depending on the library 
you got it from. You can find this out 
by typing: 

I 

then inserting the Pascal disk and 
pressing [Return] at the 'DEVICE:' 
prompt. If the name is different, then 
obviously you will have to use this 
name with the CD command. Now, 
to edit the example program, type 

£ ittndel.p 

All of those lines with a $1 inside 
curly brackets have to be changed. 
These are 'include directives', which 
instruct the compiler to include 
fragments of code from other files. 
The problem is that the complete path 
of where those files are to be found 
has to be given with the include 
directive. In the case of PCQ as 
supplied, these paths are wrong. 
Change the first one from: 

{SI •: Include/Ports.:' .. 



to: 



• .gaLibD:sW39:PCQ/Incluae/Por.i.:' _ 

and make similar changes to all of 
the other include instructions. Of 
course, if your disk is called 
something other than 
'AmigaLibDisk339:', you should use 
that name instead. 

Incidentally, there is a bug in this 
program. The line saying: 

S: ScreenPtr; 



should be changed to read 



M 



AMIGA SHOPPFR • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1 991 



AMIGA ANSWERS 



S: NewScreenPtr; 



'ou nave maae me cnonges 
the [Esc] key, followed by X 
Bturn], This will save the 
changes and quit the editor. Il is best 



an 



press me (cscj Key, louowea oy 
id [Return], This will save the 
cnonges and quit the editor. It is Des 
to have the program to be compiled 
in the PCQ directory You can do th 



is 



Once you hove made the changes 
Esc] key, followed ' 
n]. This will save \r 
nd quit the editor. 

10 nave me program to be cc 

in the PCQ directory. You can do 

by typing in the following: 

renaae sonde! .p /aandel.p 

Go to that directory by typing: 

CD / 

Now you are ready to compile. The 
easiest way to do this is by using the 
'make' utility. This is a clever script 
supplied with PCQ which automates 
the process of compiling, assembling 
and linking. Simply type: 

n)a mfe] 

Note that the \p' part of the 
program's name is omitted, because 
it is supplied by the 'make' utility. 
You can execute the finished product 
by typing 'mandel'. CR 

Q 

Lost libraries 

One thing that continues to 
puzzle me: you start with 
disks such as Workbench, 
Extras, and so on, packed with 
useful files, but when you 
come to use them there is no 
room for your own files. So 
you copy a program across to 
an empty disk and it doesn't 
work because it is looking for 
library files that are not there. 
Then comes the painful 
business of finding the lost 
files from the error messages. 
Hell's teeth! This was 
supposed to be a fun hobbyl 

Is there a copy-style 
command that finds and 
copies all the associated files? 

Phil Rostock 

Benfleet 

Essex 

A 

There is a Shareware utility, called 
WhatIS that will detail all the files a 
particular program relies on. Sadly, it 
is still up to you to copy each one 
across individually. CR 

a 

Deluxe brush off 

When I am designing a form 
using Deluxe Paint II, I make a 
brush to duplicate the form 
prior to printing out several 
copies of it on one sheet of 
paper. But then I seem to be 
locked into the brush and can't 



drop it in order to use other 
tools. How do I drop a brush 
(apart from shrinking it 
several times over until it 
vanishes)? 

Also, I have two disks from 
Amiganuts. They are very 
good but they are copy 
protected. Thus, there seems to 
be no possibility of backing up 
the disks. Do all PD software 
houses do this? 

Duncan Stewart 
Clwyd 
Wales 



A 



To get rid of a brush in Deluxe Paint, 
simply click on one of the pre-defined 
brushes (such as one of the different 
sized squares). If you should want 
your old brush back ogain, click with 
the right mouse button on the user- 
defined brush icon. 

It is unfortunate that Amiganuts' 
disks are copy-protected, but this is 
far from the norm with PD houses. I 
suspect it is because a lot of the 
programs on Amiganuts' disks are 
licensed specifically to that company, 
which no doubt prefers to keep things 
that way CR 



Q 



A cure for the flickers 

Having read a glowing report 
in a magazine (not yours) 
about Pagestream 7, off went 
my cash. How was I to know 
that soon I was to suffer a bad 
case of double vision from a 
flickering screen which 
resembles a magic lantern - 
the magazine forgot to point 
this out in its report. However, 
apart from a severe headache, 
I like the program but would 
like your advice on how to 
cure the 50-cycle jitters. 

J Joyner 

Lytham 

Lanes 



A 



The flickering occurs because the 
program is running in what is called 
'interlace' mode. This means that you 
can have twice as many lines 
vertically on the screen, but at the 
expense of your eyes. To stop this 
(and, unfortunately, halve the vertical 
resolution) you must take the 
following steps: 

Click once on the Pagestream 
icon before loading it. Then go to the 
Workbench menu ot the top of the 
screen and select the Info option. This 
will display a box containing various 
pieces of information about the 
program. One of the windows in this 
box is labelled 'Tool Types'. Using 
the up and down icons next to this 



window, scroll through the text until 
you come to a line saying 
'Interlace-Yes'. Clicking inside this 
window will let you alter the text. 
Change it to soy 'lnterlace«No' (note 
that 'No' must begin with a capital 
letter) Now, when you run the 
program, the flicker will have 
flickered and gone JW 



Q 



Local user groups 

Can you please give me any 
details of Amiga user groups 
in my area? I am a 65-year- 
old novice with a new A500 
and have, up till now, taught 
myself what little I know. 

TF Woods 

Thorpe St Andrew 

Norwich 



Meetings are held on the second 
Wednesday of every month. Contact 
Alan Morris, « 0359 5 1 355, for 
more information. 

You could also try John Dale of 
the British Association of Computer 
Clubs,* 0267 230 771, of which 
ICPUG is a member. 

If there are any user groups out 
there who would like to be included 
in our listings, send your details to: 
User Groups, Amiga Shopper, Future 
Publishing, 30 Monmouth Street, 
BathBAl 2BW. CR 



Q 



A 



We only know of one user group 
near you, and that is based in Bury 
St. Edmunds. It is a regional division 
of ICPUG, the Independent 
Commodore Products User Group. 



Protext mail merge 

I have just about mastered 
writing a letter using Protext 
and, for my husband's 
business, I found that I was 
often having to write the same 
letter but to different people 
with a few minor details 
changed. It seemed sensible to 
try the mail merge facility. But 
can I get any sense out of it? 
Well, no, actually. I read the 

onpogt 29 



A590 Tips 



Roy Bell of New Maiden in 
Surrey becomes the deserving 
recipient of a fiver for sharing 
with us the following sage 
words of advice: 

I have an Amiga 500 with an 
A590 hard drive. Because the 
hard disk came with 
Workbench installed, I have 
had very few reasons to boot 
from dfO: - usually only after I 
have made my hard disk 
startup-sequence unusable. 
However, I noticed recently 
that the version message 
displayed when booting from 
dfO: said "Workbench 1 .3.2", 
but booting from the A590 it 
said "Workbench 1.3". 

Ensuring that I had an up- 
to-date security dump of the 
hard disk, I copied the 
Workbench system from the 
floppy that came with my 
machine. It was easy to see 
that it was a different version 
because some of the file sizes 
had changed and certain 
commands - Diskcopy, for 
example - were obviously 
revised. The startup message, 
however, was still the same 
and investigation showed that 
it was merely a constant 
display. I have since included 



the Version command in my 
startup sequence, which shows 
both the Kickstart and 
Workbench version numbers. 

The moral of this would 
seem to be twofold: first, some 
of you A590 owners may be 
running an older version of 
Workbench than necessary; 
second, do not rely too much 
on the message displayed 
from the startup sequence. 

Also, I remember reading 
somewhere that because 
AmigaDOS commands are C 
programs held in the sys:c 
directory, they can easily be 
renamed. This can be very 
dangerous as software 
packages often have script 
files that call these commands. 
This may not be a problem 
when booting from dfO: 
because a c: directory is 
normally provided on the 
floppy, but when booting from 
hard disk it can cause script 
files to fail because they 
cannot find supposedly 
standard commands. A better 
method is to insert Alias 
commands into s:shell-startup. 
For examples, 'alias md 
makedir' will enable you to 
use 'md' instead of 'makedir' 
when running from the Shell. 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1991 



27 



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AMIGA ANSWERS 



A 



No, you aren't thick: you've made a 
simple mistake because the 
instructions in the manual are not 
written clearly enough. You have 
been entering the lines while Protext 
was in command mode, whereas 
they should be entered while in the 
text entry mode, just as if you were 
typing an ordinary letter. Pressing the 
[Esc] key will switch the program 
between the two modes. 

Don't forget that you need to 
create and save a separate file for 
this example to work. This file should 
be called 'Datfile', and should 
contain a list of names and addresses 
with each line separated by a 
[Return]. A further [Return] should be 
used to separate each of the 
addresses, like so: 

Fred Bloggs 
99 Bagshot Row 
Bag End 

Charlie Reallysillynarce 
101 Zeppelin 



and 



so on. 



Q 



Multiple disk drives 

I have an A500, KCS 

Powerboard, Panasonic 
KXP1I 74 printer, and 3.5- 
and 5.25-inch external drives. 

I have daisy-chained the 
5.25-inch drive off the 3.5- 
inch, but when using 
Workbench 1.3 I cannot get 
the Format or Diskcopy 
functions to work properly. 
When I copy from the external 



continued from page 27 

chapter in the manual and 
decided to try the tutorial. It 
tells you that you should enter 
the following lines: 

CO BCAXPLI1 

I'm OK to here; it replies that 
'so many' bytes are remaining 
in the buffer. Then it gives the 
following to type in: 

PL 24 

CP off 

DP tUtf ilol 

RV name addrl addr2 addr3 addi4 dumny 

So I typed it in and all I can 

get out of it is Unknown 

command'. Am I just thick or 
what? The manual goes on 
about how simple mail merge 
can be, but I can't even get 
past the first line. 

Frances Allison 

Grimsby 

South H umbers ide 



3.5-inch drive to the internal 
drive I have no problems, but 
when I copy from the internal 
to the external drive I get the 
message 'Disk is write 
protected', although it is not. 
When I disconnect the 5.25 
drive the procedure works. 

Can you please tell me 
what is wrong? 

Stephen Mortimer 

Tarn worth 

Staffs 



A 



The 5.25-inch drive is probably the 
culprit, and as far as I remember the 
Roctec units (the most common of the 
5.25-inch Amiga drives) must be 
placed first in the chain or they cause 
no end of problems. There seems to 
be some argument over the 
terminating resistor packs - in other 
words, the through port is not quite 
as transparent as it ought to be. Re- 
arranging the order in which you 
chain your disk drives should cure 
your problem. MS 



Q 



Shaky Shinwa 

I can't get my old Shinwa CP- 
80 to work with my Amiga. It 
prints text but will not 
entertain graphics. Is there a 
specific driver for the Shinwa, 
or will I have to sell it? 

Andrew Stott 

Stockton-on-Tees 

Cleveland 



A 



That certainly is an old printer and I 
have no idea which emulations (if 
any) it supports. It may be possible to 
use the CBM-MPSIOOO driver which 
is intended for IBM emulations. That 
might work. Other than that ... MS 

Q 

Aggro with ARP 

I have recently installed 
ARP 1.3 and the ASH shell on 
my Workbench disk, but can't 
find out which commands are 
built in. The author says typing 
[?] should tell me, but all I get 
is 'unknown command '?'. Do 
you know where I can get a 
copy of the documentation? 

Anon. 



A 



The documentation should be 
included with the ARP1 .3 release 
disk in archived form in the docs 
directory. The built-ins are only 
available from AShell if its working 
properly. You must make sure ARP's 
Shell-Seg is in LIBS: and made 



Cliff's Code Conundrum 

So, craven caressers of computer keyboards, we meet again for 
another of Cliff's Code Conundrums. What could the problem be 
this month, you must be asking yourselves with feverish 
anticipation, just as I asked myself this very morning. Well, this 
month I would like you to write a program to play a tune using 
the Amiga's internal sound chip. Both the program and the tune 
must be your own work, as copyright of the winning entry will be 
given over to Amiga Shopper. As well as printing the winning 
program in a couple of months' time, we hope to include it on our 
next subscribers' disk. The tune should be no more than 32 bars 
long. Entries will be judged both on the quality of the code and on 
the quality of the tune. 

Again, any dialect of Amigaspeak is permissible, but 
assembled or compiled programs must be supplied with source 
code. And don't forget to include any samples that you use on the 
disk. Send your submissions on an AmigaDOS floppy, along with 
an SAE if you ever want to see it alive again. The prize for the 
best solution is £50. Best, as we all know, is a subjective 
judgement. Mine, in this case. 

Regarding last month's problem, I wonder if anyone 
noticed the added difficulty factor, otherwise known as Cliff's 
Code Conundrum Cockup? Yes, it was back to the time of Ptolemy 
as the masses of the Sun and Earth got somehow confused (rather 
like me). The actual values are: 



Sun: M s = 2.0 x TO 30 kg 



Earth: M e = 6.1 x 10 M kg 



Anyone submitting a simulation in which the sun orbits the earth 
and the moon makes a very quick dive for the earth will be 
sniggered at (yup, same thing happened to me when I keyed in 
the previous values). You might also like to know the value of 
Newton's Gravitational Constant: 

G = 6.664 x 10" Nm'kg- 

The winning solution will be printed next month in order to give 
you time to get something together. Until then, happy hacking! 



resident during startup. If not, you 
will just get the default Shell - or 
even worse the default CLI. The 
internal ARP commands include the 
full set of script commands plus a 
couple of other goodies. MS 



Q 



PSU problems 

My question concerns the 
power supply unit that was 
supplied with my Amiga 500 
( + 512K RAM expansion). As 
well as the internal floppy, I 
also have a Cumana 354 
external drive, and having just 
purchased the SAS C compiler I 
find myself prey to the 
dreaded 'disk swapping' 
syndrome and feel that a third 
drive would help. A hard disk 
is out of the question. Would 
the PSU take the extra load of 
another Cumana 354, bearing 
in mind that it is unlikely that 
all three drives would be 



'driving' at the same time? 

M Stevens 
Queenborough 

Kent 



A 



Officially, Commodore's PSU cannot 
take the load of another drive - and 
that, as they say, is pretty much that. 
In practice, CBM supplies two types 
of PSU: the little lump (5V @ 2.3A) 
and the big lump (5V @ 4.3A). The 
problem with extra drives is caused 
by the additional loading on the 5V 
line. Note this only applies to later 
micro 3.5-inch drives; not to many 
5.25-inch drives, which also hove a 
1 2V motor line. If you have the big 
lump you should be OK, but the risk 
either way is yours. A better solution 
would be to lay out the extra cash on 
the double decker drive from Power 
Computing which has its own PSU 
and two drives. This would give you 
a total of four drives without needing 
to go to much extra expense. MS fTfr 



AMIGA SHOPPER # ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1 99 1 



29 




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PRINTERS 



TRIAL 




Mark Smiddy embarks on a 
major printer test this month, 
putting both 9- and 24-pin 
machines to the test: read on to 
discover his recommendations 



kV 



BEGINNERS 

TART HERE 



If information can be 
displayed on screen, why do 
pic need printers? 

Well now, printers are used 
to get a hard copy of 
something - information/ 
usually. Paper copy is more 
easily transportable than 
disks or computers, it is less 
likely to get destroyed and it 
can be hung on a wall as 
decoration. Most important 
is that human beings find it 
easier to understand and 
digest written information 
than text on a computer 
screen. Ask any writer how 
they check their copy. Most 
will tell you that they get a 
printout first, correct that, 
then make the changes on 
the word processor. 

How do / go about choosing 
the right printer? 

First, decide what you want 
it to do for you. If you just 
want to print draft quality 
documents, a 9-pin printer is 
quite adequate. For letter 
quality hard copy and good 
graphics, though, a 24-pin 
or laser printer is needed. 

So, when I've got one, I just 
plug it into the Amiga and 
go, right? 

Wrong. You'll need a printer 
driver, but there's usually a 




he Amiga is a great machine 
for playing games - there is 
no denying thai - but you 
read Amiga Shopper for the 
machine's other side: its development 
as a serious home micro. To get the 
most from the machine, a printer is 
arguably one of the most important 
and potentially expensive peripherals 
you can buy - it is certainly one of 
the most popular. 

Mono log 

Although the Amiga is perhaps best 
known for its graphics, colour is of 
lesser importance when it comes to 
printing. This test is aimed purely at 
finding the best general purpose 
printer in terms of price and 
performance. That involves a number 
of criteria; paramount here is value 
for money Can a cheapo 24-pin 
machine really out-perform a good 9- 
pin model, or are those extra bits just 
a red herring? Do you really need a 
good range of fonts? Is it true that a 
24-pin is quieter in use than a 9-pin 
machine? Do you need a multi-sheet 
feeder, adjustable push-pull tractors 
and automatic paper parking? 

In the end, what do you look for 
when you saunter into the shop and 
try to separate the good, the bad and 




"Buying a printer can be something 
of a frought affair. There are loads 
of printers to choose from out there 
and everyone will try to tell you 
that theirs is best on the market. 
I'm here to dig through the 
advertising hype and help you find 
the best and most cost-effective 
machine for your needs." 




the naff? This feature will blow away 
the mystique of printers and show you 
how to get value for money without 
wasting a wad on useless frills - all 
the printers tested where put through 



Producing hard 
copy used to be 
rather labour 
intensive until 
computerised 
printers came 
along. Isn't 
technology 
wonderful? 

a comprehensive 
series of tests to 
find out just that. 
None of the 
machines 
performed badly, 
although a couple 
were a little 
disappointing in 
terms of noise and 
build quality. The 
summary chart 
may look a little 
daunting, but the important points ore 
explained elsewhere in the text. So, 
stand by for a pin-punishing, ribbon- 
rattling printer probe. 

continued on page 32 



conlinucd on poo/ 32 



JARGO 




BUSTING 



ASF: 



CPI: 



CPS: 



Auto sheet feeder. A mechanism for 
automatically loading single sheets of paper 
into the printer. Essential for mail merging. 

Characters Per Inch. The number of characters 
that can be printed in one inch of paper. 

Characters Per Second. The speed at which the 
printer outputs. Beware, though, that the figure 
can be misleading* 

Descender: Part of the character printed below the 

imaginary baseline. Lowercase letters, such as 
g and y ', have descenders. 

Dots Per Inch. The number of dots the printer 
can print in one inch. This is usually expressed in 
horizontal and vertical measurements, so 
360x180 dpi means 360 dots along every inch by 
1 80 dots every inch down the page. 

Character measurement of 12cpi. See CPI. 

Lines Per Inch. The number of character lines 
printed in every inch, usually either six or eight. 

The number of complete lines printed in one 
minute. 



DPI: 



Elite: 
LPI: 

LPM: 



MTEF: Mean Time Before Failure. The number of hours 

that will elapse on overage before something 
gives up the ghost. Most machines tested here 
have a quoted MTBF of 4.000 hours. That means 
many years of printing performance. 

NLO: Near Letter Quolity. A method of printing by 

which characters are printed in two passes. 
Only half of the character is printed each pass 
so the dots can be run into each other reducing 
the dotted effect typical with dot-matri x 
printers. This technique is usually used on 9-pin 
printers. 

Pico: Character measurement of lOcpi. See CPI. 

PPM: Pages Per Minute. The number of printed pages 

per minute. This normally applies to laser 
printers; the results given in this article should 
be for worst-case scenarios. 

Sans Serif: Any font which does not have any extra 
flowery serifs attached (sans - without). 

Serif: Extra "flowery" bits added to characters in 

certain fonts to make them look more attractive. 
Times is a typical serif font. 






AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1991 



31 



PR NTERS O 



TRIAL 



continued from page 31 






Citizen Swift 9 




Not exactly aesthetically pleasing, but damned good nevertheless. 



The Swift 9 is ihe first in a series of 
quality budget machines from a 
manufacturer which is starting to 
carve a significant niche for itself in 
an already overcrowded market. I 
have already seen the quality of the 
Citizen disk drive mechanisms and 
their world-first, a mass-market third- 
height 3.5-inch floppy disk drive. 

The Swift printer range comprises 
four models: 9- and 24-pins, 
monochrome and colour. However. 



unlike some manufacturers I could 
mention, the 24-pin machine is not 
|usl a 9-pin engine with a 24-pin 
head And even then, the 9-pin 
model is a worthy competitor in this 
crowded sector. 

No one could accuse Citizen of 
designing the Swift 9 for visual 
appeal. On pure aesthetics it comes 
somewhere down the bottom of the 
list near the Pinwriter. The Swift 9 
was designed with functionality 



rather than looks in mind, and it 
carries this off extremely well. The 
sturdy cream box, finished off with a 
smoked plastic cover, looks and feels 
like it is built to take punishment. I 
was tempted to test just that, but the 
editor pointed out that this model is a 
competition prize (see page 1 1). 

Fiddle about 

Setting up the machine initially is less 
easy than, say, the NEC Pinwriter 
(see later) because you have to fiddle 
around with messy little DIP switches. 
Nevertheless, the printer's default 
settings ore adequate, if not perfect: 
Epson emulation, UK character set, 
1 1-inch forms, draft font, 
monochrome. Access to the switches 
(and optional serial interface) is 
gained through a lift-away door at 
the top-right corner of the machine - 
a position which does little to 
enhance the printer's aesthetics. 

The manual is another typical 
example of "Amiga, what's an 
Amiga?", in that Citizen recommends 
the use of a special interface for 
Commodore computers - in other 
words, that part of the manual was 
written back in the days of the PET, 
VIC 20 and C64. Surely five years or 

continued on page 34 




ORSES FOR COURSES 



As a serious Amiga owner, you will use your machine as a tool — 
for business/home use to run a word processor or a database, 
perhaps. Some will use it for programming Maybe you let the 
kids draw pictures on it Some of you might even produce 
newsletters and fanzines on it using Professional Poge All of 
these applications are almost completely useless without a printer 
of some description. To discover what facilities you will need, 
then, I'll list a few typical applications with the features required 
Most of you will want to do at least some of these, so take note of 
what applies closely to you. Of course, there are many crossover 
points involved where the same feature is useful for many jobs. 

Word processing 

For a printer to be of any use here, it must have an NLQ (Near 
Letter Quality) font of some description Times or Helvetica are 
ideal, but there are thousands of possible variations on the theme. 
Remember, NLQ is not the same os double-strike or bold printing, 
and cheaper printers - especially 9-pin models - cannot mix the 
three styles. Many Amiga word processors [Kindwordi, Pen Pal 
and so on| are actually word publishers. That is, they have their 
own internal fonts and drive the printer in its graphics mode. In 
theory, this should give a lot more flexibility, but it relies a great 
deal on the graphics performance of the printer and, especially, 
its associated software driver. 

In practice, this mode is often less useful for important 
correspondence, writing to bank managers, potential employers 
and so on, than a printer's internal NLQ, This is quite simply 
because the printer is in graphics mode, so the "banding" usually 
associated with graphic dumps becomes part of the printing and, 
not to put too fine a point on it, looks darned ugly. 

Also, you will probably want to print on single sheets for the 
final copies, but use tractor-fed paper for the first few drafts. This 
is where the paper parking feature now found on many better 
machines comes in handy. It allows you to automatically move the 
tractor paper out of the way and load single sheet in a couple of 
quick steps. And if you are sending out a lot of correspondence, 
a sheet feeder is essential. 



Programming 

Producing listings of your programs is often the easiest way to 
find those elusive bugs and hone the code until it runs like velvet. 
The primary requirements for programming are a clear draft font 
and high speed printing. This will allow you get those 50K Basic 
listings on paper in next to no time 

Database management 

At first glance, the neophytes among you may well wonder what 
use a printer is with a database. In fact, a printer is an essential 
requirement for most applications, because the whole idea of 
storing data in o database is getting it out when you need it. 
Typically, you will need to produce letters |via a moil merge to a 
word processor) and the mailing labels to stick on the envelopes 
For this, the printer must have a clear paper path (labels are well 
known for fouling paper feed mechanisms), an accurate tractor 
feed, and an adjustable head gap with plenty of space available 
Other requirements are generally the same as for word 
processing and programming. 

Accounts 

To do this properly you will need to print multi-sheet forms: 
customer copy, file copy and accounts copy, all in one go. For 
mis reason, like databases, the head gap must be adjustable and 
the adjustment level must be easily accessible. 

Graphics 

As I mentioned earlier, there are more uses for graphics than just 
printing pretty pictures. However, if you wont to do just that then 
you will need a machine with a good print density and one which 
the Amiga's drivers support. It's no good getting a printer which 
is capable of 360x360dpi if the Amiga's driver will only manage 
180x1 80dpi Recognising this, several manufacturers, notably 
Citizen and Canon, are known to hove specially commissioned 
Amiga drivers for use with their machines. To sum up, if you 
intend using your printer for outputting graphics, make sure the 
driver can handle what you want 




conlMved from poge 31 
k 

bundle of these 
k supplied on your 
system disk. A 
printer driver enables 
software to talk to your 
printer without even 
knowing what the printer is 
capable of. As far as the 
software is concerned, you 
could have anything from a 
cheap 9-pin to a really 
whizzo laser. It doesn't 
matter either way; the 
software sends the 
information and the Amiga 
does the rest. At its simplest, 
a printer driver is more or 
less a translation table - a 
sieve, if you like. 

The Amiga thinks in 
terms of NLQ, draft, 
underlining, bold and so on 
and the printer driver 
converts that into language 
which the printer can 
understand. This 
information is stored 
temporarily in the printer 
buffer until the printer is 
ready to deal with it. Printer 
buffers are FIFO (First In- 
First Out) buffers and can be 
thought of as leaky buckets. 
Data is poured into the 
bucket at the top and 
dribbles slowly out of the 
hole at the bottom. In 
practice, the printer blocks 
the hole from time to time 
until it is ready to process 
more information. 

If the Amiga sends data 
faster than the printer can 
process it, the bucket can 
get filled so the printer 
sends a message to the 
Amiga (by a process called 
handshaking) telling it to 
stop the flow of data. When 
some of the data has been 
used, the printer sends 
another message to the 
Amiga to get it to start 
sending data again. But 
watch out. In some cases, 
notably high-density 
graphics printing, the 
'buffer full' signal can 
persist for too long, 
confusing the Amiga. 



32 



AMIGA SHOPPFP • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1001 




If your database looks like this, 
you're ready to face the future. 



Given the chance to gaze at the future of database 
computing, what would you see? 

Graphical applications that are intuitive and yet 
incredibly powerful, supporting sound samples and 
even pictures. 

Applications like Superbase 4 Amiga. 

Unique features like the VCR panel mean browsing 
and reporting on data have never been simpler. 

Superbase's WYSIWYG Form Designer lets you 
draw and design forms that are easy to understand 
and use. 

And, with its own comprehensive Database 
Management I-anguage, you can develop professional 
applications. _ 

with Mfl^^Cjj^M^ 

users of IBM-compatible PCs, 
while developers can make 
sophisticated database solutions 
available on both Amiga and 
Microsoft Windows platforms. 

All trademarks acknowledKed Screen shot taken on an IBM PC 



— — T- ' 

■ 



" ■ 



• 



Superbase 4 Amiga also supports import/export of 
dBase, Lotus 1-2-3 and Microsoft Excel files. 

So, for your future's 
sake, clip the coupon, send 
us your business card or 
call us on 081 330 7166 
to find out more about 
Superbase 4 Amiga. After 
all, the benefits are staring 
you in the face. 








Denote Ihr relational links between ihc 
files rrfrrenit'd in your lorm. 



SUPERBASE 9 

PROFESSIONAL 




I currently own a copy of: 

□ Superbase Professional □ Superbase Personal 2 

□ Superbase Personal □ Neither 



f 



Name . 


InhTilk- 


Company 




Address 







1'osk'ode 



Tel 



Precision Software Ltd. 6 Park Terrace. Worcester IVk. Surrey KT4 1)1. 
Tel: 081 330 7166 Fax: 081 330 2099 



PRINTERS O 



TRIAL 



(Mlimxd from poqe 32 

more of the Amigo is enough to moke 
someone out there realise that it has 
a parallel port? 

This ring-bound tome is also 
typical of Citizen's weird layout - A4 
in height but only 2/3 A4 wide. 
(There must be a reason for this - 
answers on a postcard please.) Other 
than that, it's a fairly typical example 
of printer manuals in that much of it is 
about as useful as an A-Z of igloos 
would be to a pigmy. The illustrations 
are less than clear and the text is 
terse in places. Fortunately, the 



machine itself is good enough to 
avoid these problems and could 
probably be assembled and 
operated by a small team of well- 
trained apes (like the editorial team). 
Living with the Swift 9 is a dream 
because it delivers performance that 
is on a par with machines which cost 
twice as much just a few years ago. 
By far the best feature, and what 
would certainly sell it to me, is 
Citizen's unique menu control panel. 
By operating a simple slide switch, 
you can call up one of four different 
menus. Each menu has four buttons, 



which gives 1 6 functions in all - 18 if 
you count the dual function 
park/load and form/line feed. You 
simply switch to the menu you want, 
make a change and switch back 
again. In each menu, tiny lights 
reflect the current settings. 

Paper park 

Thanks to the band tractors (also 
found on the NEC), paper parking 
and loading is simpler and much 
more reliable than on the old Star LC- 
10. Three paths are offered: push 
tractor (the most common form), pull 



tractor - useful for heavy paper and 
multi-forms - and bottom feed. The 
latter, though available without 
adding any expensive bits, requires a 
special printer stand. A handymon 
with a saw, some patience and an 
understanding wife could, no doubt, 
modify the kitchen table to suit. Also, 
swapping from push to pull tractor is 
simpler than with the NEC machine 
once you have the knack. 

By switching to the Cut Sheet 
mode, forms can be dropped in one 
after another with no hint of 
complaint. This model also takes a 



Printer Feature Check • Printer Feature Check • Printer Feature Check • Pr 



MODEL 



P20 



124D 



Swift 9 



Swift 24 



LX850 





MANUFACTURER 


NEC 


Citizen 


Citizen 




Citizen 


Epson 




HNS 


24 


24 


9 




24 


9 24 




PRICE 


E299+VAT 


£249 +VAT 


£239 + VAT 




£365 +VAT 


£229 + VAT 




AMIGA EMULATION USED 


Pinwriter 


EpsonQ 


Epson X 




EpsonQ 


EpsonX 




FONTS 


Courier, 
Prestige 
Elite, Quick 
Gothic, Draft 
Gothic, Helvetica 
PS, Times 
PS, Bold PS. 


Courier, 
Times and 
Courier LQ 


Times, Sans Serif, 
Courier 


Draft; Courier; 
Times; Helvetica; 
Prestige Elite; 
optional font cords 
available 


Quick draft, Draft, 
Roman, Sans Serif 
available 




PITCH 


10,12,15, 
17,20 


10, 12, 15, ' 
17,20 


10,12,15, 
17,20 




10, 12, 15, 
17,20 


10,12,15,20 




TRACTOR 


Push/Pull 


Push Only 


Push/Pull 




Push/Pull 


Push only 




RESOLUTION 

EFFECTIVE RESOLUTION * 

EMULATION 


360x360 


360x360 
360x180 


240x216 




360x360 


240x216 




360x 

Pinwi 

Epsoi 


360 


240x72 




360x180 


240x72 




iters/ 
iQ 


EpsonQ/ IBM 


EpsonX/ IBM 




EpsonX/ IBM/NEC 


EpsonX 




FONT LOCK 


Yes 


No 


Yes 




Yes 


No 




INTERFACE 


Parallel; Serial Opt 


Parallel Senal Opt 


Parallel; Seria 


lOpt 


Parallel; Serial Opt 


Parallel; Serial Opt 




BUFFER 


8, 4 or 0.5K 


8K 


8K 




8K 


4K 




PAPER PARKING 
PAPER LOADING 


Yes 
Yes 


Yes 
Yes 


Yes 




Yes 


Yes 




Yes 




Yes 


Yes 




SHORT TEAR OFF 


No 


Yes 


Yes 




Yes 


Yes 




PAPER FEED 
BOTTOM FEED 


Rollers 
No 


Rollers 
Yes [opt) 
Liaht 


Rollers 
Yes (opt.l 
liaht 




Rollers 
Yes loot.) 
Liaht 


Rollers 
No 




CRANK WIEGHT 


Heavy 


Medium 




SETUP 

DIMENSIONS (W;D; H) mm 

TRACTOR WIDTH jmml 


Menu 
440x342x160 


DIP 


DIP 




LCD Menu 


DIP 




402x320x130 


402 x 320 x 


130 


402 x 320 x 1 30 


445x339x141 




89 to 279 


101 to 254 


101 to 254 




101 to 254 


100 to 254 




FEEDER WIDTH (mm) 

WEIGHT 

COPIES 


89 to 254 
84kg 
1 +4 


1 82 to 254 

5.5kg 

1+2 


182 to 254 




1 82 to 254 


1 82 to 257 




5.5kg 
1+3 




5.5kg 
1+3 


5.8kg 
1 +2 




INPUT POWER @ 


Rear 


Rear 


Rear 




Rear 


Rear 




INPUT DATA 
POWER ON @ 
OPTIONS 


Rear 
Riant 


Right 


Right 




Right 


Rear 




Left 


left 




Left 


Left 




ASF 


ASF 


ASF, colour 




ASF, colour 


ASF, Pull tractor.roll paper 




* Apart from the NEC model, oil the other printers' effective resolutions ore lower than their 


possible resolutions due to limitations in their printer drivers 


» 


















34 


AMIGA SHOPPFR • ISSUE A • AUGUST 1001 

















PRINTERS O 



TRIAL 



cut sheet feeder, which is available 
as an optional extra. 

Output quality is excellent (for a 
9-pin) and the print speed is fast 
enough, although I am in two minds 
as to the usefulness of the Quiet 
option. This prints draft mode in two 
passes instead of one and NLQ in 
four - the idea being that less stress 
is exerted on the pins so they make 
less racket. In practice, although 
human ears can hear the difference, 
the noise is still a bit wearing after a 
while. Similarly, the high-speed 
feature only makes a noticeable 



difference on long print runs. Worst 
of all, the paper thickness lever is 
tucked away alongside the ribbon 
cartridge making it difficult to get at if 
you have podgy pinkies. 

Overall, the Swift 9 is an 
excellent printer and probably the 
best 9-pin around. Although the later 
Star machines look a lot nicer, the 
Citizen is easier to use and probably 
slightly more friendly. The manual? 
OK, it won't win any prizes from me, 
but when a printer performs as simply 
as this, who needs a manual? 

continued on page 36 



Checkoi 

Citizen Swift 9 



Features 17/20 

The clear control panel scores highly for 
Citizen here. ' 

Performance 1 8/20 

The Swift is one of the best 9-pin machines 
have ever used. 



Build 13/15 

Excellent - what more can I say? 

Ease of use 18/20 

That control panel makes it soooo eosy 

Price ...23/25 

Excellent value for money. 



89/ 1 00 



High marks indeed, and definitely a printer to be reckoned with in the future. 



Feature Check • Printer Feature Check • Printer Feature Check • Printer 



LQ400 



LQS50 



LC200 



LC24 



ML380 





Epson 


Epson 


Star 


Star 


Oki 


* 


24 


9 


24 


24 






£229 + VAT 


£319 + VAT 


£259 + VAT 


£259 + VAT 


£329 +VAT 




EpsonQ 


EpsonQ 


EpsonX 


EpsonQ 


EpsonQ 




Draft, Roman, Sans Serif, 
optional font cards 
optional multi-font 

card available 


Draft, Roman, 
Sans Serif 

Script 


Draft, Sans Serif, 
Courier, Orator, 


Draft, Sans Serif, 
Courier, Orator, Script 


Orator, Courier, Swiss. 
Optional font cards available 



10,12, 15,20 



No 

Rollers 



No 



Medium 



DIP 



Rear 



Rear 



Left 



10, 12,15,20 



10,12 17,20 



10,12 17,20 



Yes 



Yes 



Yes 



Rollers 



Rollers 



Bail 



arm 



No 



Yes (opt.) 



No 



Medium 



Light 



DIP 



Keypad 



Light 



DIP 



Rear 



Rear 



Rear 



Rear 



Right 



Righl 



Loft 



Front 



Front 



ASF, Pull tractor, roll paper ASF, Push tractor 



ASF, Roll paper 



ASF, Ro ll paper 



10, 12, 15,20 



Pull only 




Push only 




Push/Pull 




Push/Pull 




Push only 


360x360 




360x360 




240x216 
240x72 




360x360 
360x180 




360x360 


360x180 




360x180 


360x180 


EpsonQ 




EpsonQ 
IBM 




Epson X 
IBM 




Epson Q 
IBM 




Epson Q 


No 




No 




Yes 




Yes 




No 


Parallel; Serial 


Opt 


Parallel; Sena 


lOpl 


Parallel; Serial 


Opt 


Parallel; Serial 


Opt 


Parallel; Serial Opt 


8Kor1K 




8Kor IK 




16K 




16K 




8K (40K) 


No 




Yes 




Yes 




Yes 




Yes 


Yes 




Yes 




Yes 




Yes 




Yes 



Yes 



Bail arm 



Yes (opt.) 
Light 



Menu 





390 x 320 x 


139 


418 x 347 x 


140 


440 x 334 x 


135 


440 x 334 x 


135 


398 x 345 x 1 20 




101 to 254 




101 to 254 




100 to 294 




100 to 294 




76 to 254 




1 82 to 256 




1 82 to 256 




100 to 250 




100 to 250 




76 to 254 




7kg 
1+2 




6kg 
1 +3 




6.3kg 
1 +3 




6.3kg 


7.7kg 




1+3 




1 +2 



Rear 



Underside 



Front 



ASF, Pull tractor 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE A • AUGUST 1991 



35 



PRINTERS O 



TRIAL 



(oniinufd from page 35 



Epson LQ-550 




Epson's LQ-550 is a good machine, but is it really worth the price? 



The Epson 550 is a compromise 
lying somewhere between a budget 
24-pin machine and a more 
expensive high flyer. To this end, the 
machine supports a variety of 
features not found on the cheaper 
machines - like short form tear off 



and push tractor, plus options such as 
a pull tractor and font cards. This is, 
perhaps, where Epson has dropped 
a bloomer, since the machine pitches 
in at around the same price bracket 
as Citizen's Swift 24 (which is about 
another 50 quid) but lacks many of 



the more desirable options found on 
the competitor's machine. 

The build quality and easy-to-use 
control panel are the real stars of this 
machine; likewise the easily 
accessible DIP switch array located 
just aft of the panel. In use this 
machine is a real dream; far and 
away removed from the nightmare 
days of the FX-80 (remember that 
one?). This machine, with its snazzy 
auto-loader, is a real beauty. 

In use, the machine is fast and 
efficient, although surprisingly slow in 
terms of draft printing throughput 
when compared to the cheaper LO- 
400. Print quality is as good as ever 
in both NLQ and graphics mode - 
the draft font, as readable as it 
always has been with Epson. Most 
notably, this machine appeared most 
sensitive to the weird EpsonQ printer 
driver supplied by Commodore and 
consistently performed better using its 
own Epson 9-pin emulation. 

Although this is a good machine, 



I feel Epson could do better, and 
potential buyers may well be better 
off with the more expensive Citizen 
Swift 24 or the cheaper NEC P20. 



IECKOUT 
Epson LQ-550 



Features 14/20 

Nothing I'd write home about, really 

Performance 1 7/20 

like Pavarotti on television - it's better in 
Hyde Pork. 

Build 14/15 

Epson quality - what more can I say 9 

Ease of Use 16/20 

Very little to complicaie this baby. 

Price 16/25 

They must be joking) 




A good mochine, but i? seems rothef 
overpriced for the facilities it offers 



Checkout 

Epson LX-850 



Features 10/20 

The control panel is more show than use; 
envelope printing is a handy facility 

Performance 1 5/20 

Acceptable for a cheap 9*pm machine. 

Build 10/15 

Generally good overall, but the paper 
selection lever is a bit naff 

Ease of Use 13/20 

Simple to use, but limited when more 
experience is gained. 

Price 20/25 

An adequate machine for the money. 




Nothing to write home about, but it does 
carry the Epson name. 



The Epson LX-850 is a low-cost 9- 
pin machine aimed firmly at 
entry-level printer users. 

This essentially cheap printer has 
a solid feel - until, that is, you come 
to switch from tractor to single sheet 
feed. This plastic lever flexes so 
alarmingly in use that it appears to 
be constantly threatening to snap 
clean off. In all fairness, modern 
plastics can probably withstand this 
type of stress - but it looks bad. 

Initial setup is provided by DIP 
switches tucked away in the side of 
the machine, and after that many 
functions can be performed in 
software or by Epson's SelecType 
control panel. The down side is that 
the usual LED display has been 
replaced by a bell function. (LEDs are 
only used for Power, on-line and 
paper out.) This is OK for setting 
typestyle but a bind when you need a 
quick reminder which font is in use. 



Epson LX-850 




The LX-850: a perfectly adequate 9-pin printer, although nothing special. 



On a lighter note, the manual is 
excellent - well, at least as the 
proverbial printer manuals go. 

The choice of fonts is limited, and 
most of the work must be done in 
software - although this is no 
problem for the Amiga. Print quality 



is acceptable for a budget 9-pin - 
certainly better than the Star 
machines and on a par with the 
Citizen printers. For the money this is 
o good little all-rounder - although a 
bit on the noisy side for a 9 pin, 
especially while printing graphics. 



Citizen 124D 




The Citizen 124D: a budget machine rated as "a worthy choice". 



Citizen's 124D is the only true 
budget 24-pin printer in this test to 
offer facilities like paper parking and 
bottom feed. 

Reflecting the low price, the 
l 24D is a bit thin on the ground 



when it comes to fancy features like a 
massive range of internal fonts, clever 
programming and selectable tractors. 
Instead, Citizen has built a machine 
which has just those features you 
really need - paper park, optional 



bottom feed and, more important that 
24 pin head. The result is o sturdy, 
easy to use work horse that feels like 
it can deliver the goods. 

Setting it up is a doddle The 
documentation is pretty sparse but 
this machine is really so simple to use 
that it can be assembled and 
mastered in o couple of minutes. 

Features such as paper parking 
and the quiet mode have been 
incorporated into the printer. In effect 
you end up with o machine which is 
as reliable and easy to use as either 
of the Swifts yet as affordable as a 
good 9 pin. Print quality is very good 
although the machine is a little slower 
than its more powerful brother If you 
need a no frills machine with the guts 
to withstand everyday use, and 
deliver the performance when you 
demand it, this is a worthy choice. 

cofitiwcd on poge 41 



Checkout 

Citizen 124D 



Features 8/20 

Not o lot, but that's not what you are 
paying for... 

Performance 18/20 

Excellent - what more con I say? 

Build 13/15 

Just like the two Swift machines - very 
good indeed 

Ease of Use 19/20 

They don't really come much simpler that 
this one! 

Price 23/25 

One of the cheapest high-performance 24- 
pin engines around 




36 



AMIGA SHOPPFReiSSUF A • AUGUST 1091 




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TEL (0727) 56005/41396 



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EXTRAS 

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ATOM n Mp, loo* 4401. MS DOS 3 3 - S ?r *« > 700071500 £1 39 
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38 



AT LAST! AMIGA PACKS AT UNDER £300!! 

Choose from one of the 3 packs below, but hurry, stocks VERY limited. 



N.B. ALL PACKS COME WITH LATEST UK VERSION OF AMIGA 500, MODULATOR, PSU ETC 



HEROES PACK 

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MONO PRINTER PACK COLOUR PRINTER PACK 

• Amiga Value Pack * Amiga Value Pack 
(Your choice of 3) (Your choice of 3) 

• LC10 Mono or Citizen 120D + * LC200 or Citizen Swift 9 
(Please state which) (Please state which) 

• All connecting cables • All connecting cables 



■LOUR 
MONIT OR PACK 

• Amiga Value Pack 
(Your choice of 3) 

• 1084S or Philips 883311 
(Please state which) 

• All connecting cables 



ONLY 



£439 



.99 



ONLY 



£494 



.99 



ONLY 



£539 



ilONAL PACK 

• Amiga Value Pack 
(Your choice of 3) 

• 1084S or Philips 883311 
(Please state which) 

• LC200 or Swift 9 Colour 
(Please state which) 

• All connecting cables 



.99 ONLY 



£739 



.99 




_ 



EURO LANGUAGE 
DISK DRIVE PACK 

• PC 880 3.5" disk drive RRP £89.95 

• The French Mistress RRP £19.95 

• The German Master RRP £19.95 

• The Spanish Tutor RRP £19.95 

• The Italian Tutor RRP £19.95 

Total RRP £169.75 
Special Pack Price £89.95 




COMMODORE A501 
SCOOP PURCHASE 

* Official 512K Ram upgrade for A500 

* Complete with battery backed clock 

* Enclosed in protective shielding 

* Only approved upgrade not invalidating 
warranty 

* Official Commodore 1 year guarantee 

RRP £99.99 SCOOP PRICE £44.99 
ORDER WHILST STOCKS LAST! 



packi AMIGA PERIPHERAL PACKS pack 2 



!gaboard Ram Expansion RRP £49.95 

40 capacity lockable disk box RRP £9.95 

20 3.5" DS/DD disks with labels ...RRP £19.95 



PC 880 3.5" disk drive RRP £89.95 

Megaboard Ram Expansion RRP £49.95 

40 capacity lockable disk box RRP £9.95 

20 3.5" DS/DD disks with labels RRP £19.95 

3.5" disk drive cleaner kit RRP £9.95 



TOTAL RRP £79.85 PACK PRICE £39.95 TOTAL RRP £179.75 ...PACK PRICE £99.95 



COMPU 










UNIT 3, FORGE CLOSE, LITTLE END ROAD, EATON SOCON, CAMBS 




AMIGA 

'/ 2 MEG UPGRADE 
BOARD 

* Uses latest 4 chip design 

* Memory on/off switch 

* Option of battery 
backed clock 

* Full 1 7 month guarantee 

* New super low price 

£29.95 

Clock version £34.95 



DISK DRIVE STARTER KIT 

PC880 3.5" High Quality Disk Drive £89.99 

(Features anti-click, on/off, superslim design) 

Ten 3.5" DS/DD disks with labels RRP £9.99 

40 Capacity lockable disk box RRP £9.99 

3.5" Disk drive cleaner kit RRP £9.99 

TOTAL RRP £119.96 

Starter Kit Price £64.99 



STAR PRINTERS 

LC 10 Mono 

9 Pin Dot Matrix 144/34cns f iaq Q* 


POWER HOUSE 1 

1 .5Mb RAM Expansion Card £89.95 1 


LC200 Colour 

9 Pin, 180/45 cps,16K Buffer 


£199.95 
£239.95 

i289.95 

IY PACK 

;hased 

£14.95 
RRP £6.95 
RRP £12.95 

.85 


Blitz with PC880 power drive 


£79.95 1 


LC24-200 Mono 


A500 Ant Click Board 


£19.95 1 


24 Pin Dot Matrix, 200/6/cps.... 


Power Mouse (Naksha Mech).. ........ 


£16.99 1 


; LC24-200 Colour 
24 Pin. 200/67 cps. 30K Buffer . 

| PRINTER ACCESSOl 


Midi Interface (in thru out 1 out 2) 


£17.99 1 


Only available when pun 

with a printer. 

* Parallel printer cable - RRP . 

* 200 sheets listing paper - 1 

* Quality tailored dust cover - 

TOTAL RRP £34 




PACK PRICE £9. 

with printer stand 
£14.95 


95 1 



ESSENTIAL COMPUTER 
ACCESSORY PACK 1 

* Competition Pro 5000 joystick RRP £16.95 

* High quality solid perspex 

computer dustcover RRP £14.95 

* 20 3!/2' DS/DD disks 

with labels RRP £19.95 

* 40 capacity lockable disk box RRP £9.95 

* 3^2" disk drive cleaner kit RRP £9.95 

TOTAL RRP £71.75 
PACK PRICE £29.95 



ESSENTIAL COMPUTER 
ACCESSORY PACK 2 

• Naksha high quality powermouse .RRP £34.95 

• High quality 8mm mousepad RRP £8.95 

• High quality solid perspex 

computer dust cover RRP £14.95 

• Twin joystick/mouse extension leads. .RRP £9.95 

TOTAL RRP £68.80 
PACK PRICE £29.95 



ESSENTIAL ACCESSORIES 

Disks 

Pack of 10 high quality 3.5' DS/DD £4.99 

Box of 10 branded TDK 3.5' DS/DD £7.99 

Box of 50 3.5' DS/DD with labels £18.99 

Box of 100 3.5' DS/DD with labels £35.99 

Box of 250 3.5* DS/DD with labels £79.99 

3.5' disk drive cleaning kit £3.99 

Disk Boxes 

3.5" 10 capacity Ryford box £1.49 

3.5' 40 capacity lockable box £4.95 

3.5* 80 capacity lockable box £6.95 

3.5' 80 capacity Van 3 (slim design) £7.95 

Mouse 

8mm high quality mousepad £3.99 

Mouse/joystick extension leads £5.99 

Dustcovers 

PVC quality covers for computer/printer£6.99 
High quality solid Perspex dustcover ....£9.99 



MICROSWITCH 
JOYSTICKS 

The only joysticks worth buying, 
full 1 year guarantee! 

IQWCKJOY HI SUPERCHARGER 

Two fire buttons. Auto-fire. 

Sex micro-swrtches £8.99 

QUICKSHOT TURBO 

Two fire buttons. Auto-fire, six mtcro-swrtcbes..£9.99 

QUICK JOY VI JETFK3HTER 

Two fire buttons. Autofire with fasVstow mode, 

6 m/s £12.99 

(COMPETITION PRO 5000 

fwo tire buttons, steel shaft, Autofire, m/s... .£12.99 
[ZIPSTrCK AUTOFIRE 

Two fire buttons, steel shaft. Autofire, m/s. ...£13. 99 
STINGRAY AUTOFIRE 

Direct replacement for Konix Navigator £14.99 

QUICK JOY V SUPERBOARD 

Six fire buttons, Autofire, stopwatch, 

Ten m/s £16.99 

QUICKJOY TOPSTAR - Highly recommended 
Two fire buttons. M slow motion, 6 m/s, 

see through body £19.99 

QUICKJOY MEGABOARD 

Four fire buttons, 8 m/s, A/f slow motion, 

stop watch, countdown £23.99 




DOWLING 



Arc*** 






HOW TO 
ORDER 

BY PHONE 

Simply call our head office quoting your 
Access/Visa number on 

Mon-Fri 0480 403222 

Sat 0480 403304 

By personally calling at 
our St Neots or Hertford Shop 



ST NEOTS 



HERTFORD 



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Warren Place 

Hertford, Herts. 

Tel: 0992 554469 




6 Priory Mall. 

St Neots, Cambs 

Tel: 0480 

403304 

BY POST 

Make cheques, building society drafts or 
postal orders payable To: 

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DELIVERY 

Please add £6 courier delivery tor orders over 
£100. add £2 p&p for orders under. 



(UK Mainland, moil areas) 



TELESALES ORDER LINE (MON-FRI) 0480 403222/(SAT) 0480 403304 



••••••••••••• 

GOLD CLUB SERVICE 

* 7 day money back guarantee it not completely satisfied 

* 30 day exchange lor new policy should a fault occur 

* 1 year guarantee giving FREE collection and delivery 
service should a fault occur 

* Exclusive gold card with personal membership number 
entitling you to special offers 

* All this for a nominal £10 per item over £100 

•NEW* PLATINUM CARD SERVICE *NEW* 

* All the benefits of the succcsful gold card service (above) 

plus the following 

-» Extended 2 year guarantee from date of purchase. (Pesieofmmd 

{or2yt*n) 
: rce use of loan machine should yours need to be repaired. (Note 
you never need he without your expenuve purchtte 
-* Free collection and delivery service for the full two vean should a 
fault occur. (Juit rruke one ample phone all And leave the rest to 

m!) 

-» Exclusiveplatinum pnviledged customer card entitling you to 

special often. 
-» All of these benefits tor the incredible price of just £39.95 per item 

/urchased. 
In the unlikely au ofihorugei of identical model loan nuchinei 
a iuitahle alternattve a-ii/ he offered 

WHY CHOOSE DOWLING? 

* ESTABLISHED OVER 5 YEARS 

With a growing reputation for 'putting the 
customer first . we intend to satisfy many more 
customers for years to come 

* TECHNICAL SUPPORT/ON-SITE 
ENGINEERS 

Employing over 20 specialist staff, we are 
equipped to deal with the majority of queries 

* FULL TESTING PROCEDURE 
All computer hardware is tested prior to despatch, 
proving Dowlmgs commitment to customer care 

So choose Dowling and put 
our reputation to the test! 



ALL AMIGA PKlCfcS INCLUDE VAT AND UK DUJVtKY ALL PRODUCTS AHt UK STOCK AND CAKRY A FULL 12 MONTH COMMODOKI WAKKANTY PLfcASfc 
KWG US BUOKt ORDtHING TO CHBCK STOCKS AND CUKKkOT PKJCLS 



AMIGA A500 BASE A500 computer, mouee. tv modulator, mamala Workbench, elc aupplied oare' with no games 
software - STOCKS VERY LMTED - SO HURRY * 

AMIGA A500 BASE 1MB A500 computer with extra 5t2K ram expansion, mouee, tv irodubtor. riianuala Workbench, 
etc auppfed T»re with no games software * OUR RAM DCPANSK>« DO NOT t^AUDATE YOUR WARRANTY « 



AMIGA ASOO ASTRA A500 5t2k computer, mouee tv modulator, manuals. Workbench, etc 
software littes (see A500 1MB ASTRA pack betow (or aetata) 



wuh K> great 



AMIGA ASOO 1MB ASTRA Amjga ASOO computer. 5t2K Ram expansion with clock and battery back-up. mouse, tv 
modulator, manuals. Workbench etc risks plus the ASTRA K> games pack nclurjng the following games i Datastorm. Dungeon Quest E 
Mobon. Grand Monster Stem. Kid Gloves Powerptay. RVF Honda Shuttle Puck C^fe Soccer and Tower o( BbdeH 



NEW AMIGA 1500 PACKS !! 



AMIGA A1S00 BASE AISOO computer witti 2 x 3.5" 
880k risk dnves butt in. and a mouse The A1500 base pack is suppfed 
with no software 

AMIGA A1SOO SO FT WA RE roasts of Atsoo base 

pack and Ptaunum Works D Paint 3. Populous. Simm City. Battle Chess, 
Their Finest Hour and 2 books 

AMIGA A1500 BASE 32MB consists of aisoo base 

pack and fitted 52mb auto booting hard risk drive 

AMIGA A1500 SOFTWARE 32MB ccnastsof 

AI5O0 software pack and fitted 52mb auto booting hard dak dive. 

AMIGA A1300 BASE 104MB consists of Atsoo 

base pack and fitted KMmb auto booting hard dak dnve. 

AMIGA A1SOO SOFTWARE 104MB om*toof 

A15QO software pack and fitted KMmb auto boobng hard risk drive. 



1mb 



3mb 



5mb 



E299.00 



£325.00 



£325.00 



£350.00 



9mb 



£590.00 £795.00 £875.00 £1000.00 fc 



£655.00 £850.00 £930.00 £1055.00 



£925.00 £1120.00 £1200.00 £1325.00 



£980.00 £1175.00 £1255.00 £1380.00 fe- 



C1075.00 £1270.00 £1390.00 £1475.00 



£1130.00 £1325.00 £1405.00 £1530.00 



Accessories 



A500 5T2K ram upgrade * clock £29.99 

ASOO L5Mb ram upgrade £99 99 

A590 20Kt> hard risk drive £284.95 

External 3.5" Disk Drive £65.00 

Golden Image Hand Scanner £199.00 

Amiga Stereo Scan Lead £12.99 

Amiga 8833 Mkl Lead £12.99 

Mouse Mat £350 



with Clock 



We are now slocking the new PROTAR 
5t2K RAM UPGRADE WITH CLOCK. 
The neat compact 4 chip design comes 
complete with box. instrucbona on/off 
switch and aliilC month warranty 

PROTAR 5V2K Ram with clock £29.99 

PPOIAR are one of the leading ST hardware 
manufactures Ihoy are now oxtondmg 
their range of peripheral! into the Amiga 
market A* OffClAL PROTAR DfSTRIBUlORS. 
we are pleased to otter you their range, 
including the now 6r2K ram upgrade as 
above Also coming *oon ASOO Hold 
Drives (better looking than the A590 tl) in 
varying sizes from 20MB to BOMB and a 
ultra low price colour monlior 



PRINTERS 

At of our printers come with a paratel cable to suit Atari SX Amiga 
and all standard PC etc (other cables available at extra coat _ ask 
for details). AM printers carry a full 12 months warranty We only sell 
genuine UK stock -we do not offer inferior 'grey imports'. 

SPECIAL OFFER! For a kmited period only we are offenrig a 
CITIZEN PRINTER STARTER PACK with at Qituen pnriters. The 
pack comprises of : 3S" disk full of printer u'rivers for the ST Amiga 
& PC 200 sheets of tenfold tractor feed paper. 200 fanfold tractor 
feed address labels: 5 tractor feed envelopes at for only C12J99 on 
top of the price of the printer 

Citizen (200 * <9-pin 144 cpa draft 30 cps MOJ £139.00 

Glizen Swift 9 (9-pin 192 cps draft 43 cps M.OJ £199.00 

Gtizen t24D (24-pin 144 cps draft 48 cps LO) £209.00 

Citizen Swrtt 24 (24-p*\1§2 cps draft 64 cps LO) £29900 

Citizen Swrtt 24X (24-pin 15" carriage version of Swift24> £399 00 

Star LCKJ Mono (9-pin 144 ops draft 34 cpa NLQ> £155.00 

Star LC200 Colour (9-pin ISO cps draft 45 cps NLQ) £220 00 

Star LC24-J0 Mono (24-pin 180 cps draft 60 cps LQ) £215.00 

Star LC24-200 Mono (24-pin 200 cps draft 67 cps LO) £260.00 

Star LC24 -200 Cotour (24 -pki 200 cps draft 67 cps LO) £295.00 

Star XB24-K) Mono (24-pin Professional Series) £475 00 

Star XB24-15 Mono (24-pin 15" version of XB24-K)) £60000 

Canon BJtOE Bubble Jet (ink jet portable and compact) £289.00 
Hewlett Packard Deak Jet 500 (ink jet 3 pages per mhute) £459.00 
Panasonic KXP tt24i (24-pin improved version of KXP 1124) £279.00 



Philips 8833 Mkl I 
Cotour Monitor 



The Philips 8833 Mkll is the perfect 
colour monitor for Amiga owners. 
With its stereo sound and super 

Siuality picture it really shows off the 
uf capabilities of the Amiga. The 
Phips 8833 Mkll also comes with t2 
months on site warranty FREE 

8833 with ArrigB cable £249.99 



Hard Disks and 
Ram Upgrades 



*•* AMIGA A1500 ONLY -** 

Amiga A15O0 8Mb Rim Board* 
Populated with 2Mb £199.00 

Populated with 4Mb £2 76.00 

Populated with UMb £425.00 

Arnjga A1500 Auto-coobng Quantum 

hardolak dnves 

(FREE fitting when bought with an 

A1500) 

52Mb with conlroler £349.00 

104Mb with controter £499.00 



OUR TELESALES LINES 

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FROM 10.00 AM TILL 12. OO 

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OR USE YOUR ACCESS OR VISA AND RING OUR 
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PRINTERS O 



TRIAL 



confined from pogc 36 

The NEC Pinwriter P20's styling 
is pleasing, if a little bulbous, with the 
multi-function control panel slightly 
indented in the facia giving way to 
the rounded edges of the box. Top 
left, the paper feed ond thickness 
selection levers afford easy access, 
yet feel solid without being overly 



AWOL? 

During the production of this article almost 
every printer manufacturer in the UK was 
contacted and asked to supply models for 
review. For the record, those failing to 
respond include: Seikosha, Olivetti, 
Brother, Toshiba, Canon, Panasonic and 
Mannesman Tally. Unbelievably, 
Commodore did not respond despite 

1 fax and phone calls. Come on 
CBM - what are you frightened of? 



bulky. Paper loading is simple thanks 
to the modern, bail-arm free design 
and extra paper guide built in to the 
head carrier. 

Configuring the printer for use is 
performed with a menu-based system 
built in to the machine's own 
firmware. This is definitely simpler 
(and more powerful) than the more 
conventional technique of setting DIP 



switches, but tends to be a messy 
business. The menu is long, with 
changes being echoed to the 
printout. The idea works well once 
you get used to it, and thankfully the 
default factory settings are enough to 
get you started. However, I was left 
reminiscing about days long past 
when we all worked at teletypes and 
VDUs (monitors) were luxuries we 
could only dream of. 

The manual is about par for the 
course, no better and no worse than 
any of the others I've seen. The 
illustrations are clear and concise but 
a little more description would have 
been useful in some areas. For once, 
though, it would be marvellous to 
hear from a manufacturer who has 
heard of someone other than IBM. 
This rap on the knuckles, incidentally, 
applies to everyone featured here - 
not just NEC. 

In use, the P20 delivers just the 
sort of performance you might expect 
from a good quality 24-pin machine 
at a price you might reasonably 
expect to pay for a colour 9-pin. 
Here, areas where solid reliable 
design has given way to luxuriant 
looks come to the fore. Not only was 
the P20 one of the quietest machines 
tested, it delivered good quality 
output in a short time. Another plus 



NEC Pinwriter P20 




NEC's P20: good quality output from a good quality machine. 



point was the user-configurable buffer 
size, which ensured that the Amiga 
did not start its infamous "Printer in 
trouble" song and dance act. 

If nits have to be picked with the 
P20, the only obvious flaw lies with 
the tractor feed There is nothing 
wrong with the tractor unit itself, but 
swapping from push to pull tractor is 
fiddly and getting back again is a 
nightmare. The problem lies with the 



The Benchmarks • The Benchmarks • The Benchmarks 



We've all seen them. Those exaggerated claims given 
by printer manufacturers as to how fast their machines 
are. To see how well the printers on test performed, I 
tested them with a simulated, real-world throughput test. 
This involves sending each printer a text file consisting of 
a known number of characters and timing how long the 
print run takes. 

To get realistic figures, each printer was forced to 
print a complete line (79 characters plus a line feed) so 



the head had to move the maximum distance without 
bouncing against the stop. These figures reflect the sort 
of performance you can reasonably expect to achieve. 
Note, many machines print slightly faster in elite pitch 
(1 2cpi). To get good overall performance, without too 
many figures, these results are based on averages 
between pica (lOcpi) and elite. Timing starts from the 
moment the machine starts printing, and stops when the 
bst character is output. 



CPS 



Draft 
PLPM 



PPPM 



CPS 



NLQ 
PLPM 



PPPM 



124D 


109 


83 


1.3 


34 


26 


0.4 


Swift 9* 


121/149 


88/113 


1.3/1.7 


34 


26 


0.4 


Swift 24 


121 


88 


1.3 


47 


36 


0.5 



LX-850 



106 



81 



1.3 



LQ-550 



LQ-400 



109 
121 



83 
88 



1.3 
1.3 



24 
47 



18 



0.3 



36 



0.5 



43 



33 



0.5 



ML-380 



127 



97 



1.5 



48 



37 



0.6 



LC-200* 91/124 



LC-24 
P20 



130 
115 



69/94 
99 

88 



1.0/1.4 23 
1.5 51 



18 
38 



0.3 
0.6 



1.3 



51 



38 



0.6 



• Secondary results for LC-200 and Swift 9 are based on the high-speed draft option available from the panel. 

CPS=Characters Per Second (typical) 
PLPM=Printed Lines Per Minute (worst cose) 
PPPM-Printed Pages Per Minute (worst case) 



release mechanism when the unit is 
fitted for pull tractor. Once engaged 
in pull position, it holds on tighter 
than a one-armed trapeze artist. 
Removing it involves flexing the 
plastic so much it looks in danger of 
splitting - definitely not for the faint- 
hearted. Thankfully, this is something 
few users will want to do on o 
regular basis. 

Also, the control panel is based 
on touch-sensitive burtons - more the 
sort of thing I would expect to see on 
a budget-printer, not one that exudes 
quality like this one. Some would 
argue that there is nothing wrong 
with these, indeed, they may be 
preferable to 'real' buttons. At the 
end of the day, this is more personal 
taste, and I prefer buttons. 

Caveats aside, the P20 is a 
good, solid printer which scores 
highly on quality and robustness. 
Although the styling is a little dated, it 
should enjoy a long and useful life 
and is one machine I would happily 
moke a space for in my office. 

(outwitted on poge 42 



ECKOUT 

NEC Pinwriter P20 



Features 1 5/20 

Plenty of fonts and clever firmware give 
it an edge 

Performance 18/20 

Superb output and respectable speed in 
all modes. 

Build 12/15 

Generally excellent, even if the styling 
looks dated. 

Ease of Use 15/20 

Menu driven configuration is messy. 

Price 23/25 

You get what you pay for and you get o 
lot for the money. 




AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1991 



" 



41 



PRINTERS O 



T R A L 



continued from page 41 



Star LC-20Q 




Star's LC-200: the print quality leaves something to be desired. 



The LC-200 is one of Star's new 
range of machines. Unlike the older 
models, the 9-pin version of the LC- 
200 comes as a colour machine as 
standard - although it does take the 



HECKOUT 

Star LC-24 



Features 1 8/20 

Good font *el, easy lo get going The 
'quiet' feature is useful 

Performance 17/20 

Clear characters and good blacks 

Build 14/15 

Excellent. 

Ease of Use 15/20 

A little quirky at first; but not bod once 
you're accustomed to it. 

Price 20/25 

OK for what you gel, but not a particularly 
fabulous bargain. 



cheaper black ribbons for general 
purpose use. The 24-pin machine, 
although similar in looks and slightly 
improved specification, is supplied as 
either colour or monochrome. 



In use the machine is delightfully 
quiet - not much louder than the fan 
noise emanating from my A590 hard 
disk. However, when put to the test 
the machine was disappointing in 
terms of raw performance. You can 
judge this for yourself by looking at 
the test figures - but this otherwise 
superbly engineered machine has 
been let down badly by lousy print 
speed. Given that this is a machine 
which glibly promises 225cps in draft 
mode, I was amazed to discover just 
how slow it really was. 

At the end of the day, the 
deciding factor on which printer 
performs best is the overall print 
quality - and it is here where Star 
has consistently let itself down. The 
output quality - even with a new 
ribbon - is far too grey and light, this 
is something which Star really needs 
to address if it wants the LC-200 to 
be a serious competitor in the market 



HECKOUT 
Star LC-200 



Features 1 8/20 

Nice set of fonts - clear control panel. 

Performance 10/20 

Rather slow; outpu' e'*s too much on the 
grey side. 

Build 14/15 

Superb, just what I'd expect from Star. 

Ease of Use 1 5/20 

Simple in day-to-day use; a little harder for 
special features. 

Price 20/25 

Reasonable performance, especially 
considering the price. 




Usual Star quality, marred by low speed 




Solid and reliable - a good choice 



The LC-24 is very easy to use; it has 
proper burtons on the control panel, 
for starters. Found here, too, is the 
new 'quiet' feature which reduces 
noise levels by about half. 

One strange feature is the way 
the bail arm is driven automatically 
by the machine. In other words, when 
paper is being auto-loaded, the bail 
arm flips forward out of the way, 
popping bock when the load is 
completed. This is fun to watch, if a 
little disconcerting at times - 
especially if you're used to manual 
operation. Certainly, the fixed rollers 
found on most of the latest designs 
are far more reliable and less prone 
to paper jams. 

Like all the Star models, the LC-24 
is dead easy to use and to get to 
grips with. The documentation is 
average, the control panel a cinch. 

Print quality is fair; not the best of 
the 24-pin engines, but not the worst. 



Star LC-24 




The Star LC-24 is simple-to-use, fairly fast, and offers good quality. 



either (olthough, to be fair, most of 
the 24-pin machines produce very 
similar output quality). The machine 
tested best in terms of pure 
throughput, at just over half a page 
per minute in NLQ. 



Overall, the LC-24 is a good, 
solid printer (haven't I said that 
before?) which should keep on going 
long after some have proved that 
there's more to MTBF figures than 
meets the eye. 



Citizen Swift 24 




The Swift 24 has good quality output but a confusing control panel. 



The Swift 24 looks at first glance 
just like a 24-pin version of the Swift 
9. Indeed, mechanically, little has 
changed between the two models - 
so any problems/advantages 
highlighted for the Swift 9 also apply 
here. 



The major change is the dual 
function control panel. The DIP 
switches found in the cheaper 
machine have been removed to make 
way for extra font cards; and default 
settings now have to be programmed 
through the control panel. Once 



again, the default settings are good 
enough to get started with, but 
changes are initially extremely tricky 
to make. There is no doubt that the 
firmware and electronics behind this 
design are superbly clever but they 
are anything but intuitive. In fact, the 
menu system employed on the Swift 9 
is far easier to use and a darned 
sight more friendly. 

Print quality is very good - as it 
should be - and there is less 
evidence of banding on graphic 
dumps than with the 9-pin model. In 
letter quality mode too, the Citizen 
delivers the goods, although the 
range of fonts is not as good as the 
NEC Pinwriter. Optional font cards 
are available but none were 
available for this test. The Swift 24 is 
a superbly engineered machine for 
the money, but I think that control 
panel could be improved - it really is 
too complex. 

continirtd on page 44 



IECKOUT 
Citizen Swift 24 



Features 19/20 

The LCD control panel is a neat idea - but 
hard to get used to. 

Performance 16/20 

On a par with the rest of the bunch - 
darned good. 

Build 13/15 

Like its little brother, excellent ~ what more 
can I say? 

Ease of Use 15/20 

Yeeeeekl Technophobes should certainly 
avoid this one) 

Price 22/25 

A great machine with great performance. 




Not quite as good 05 the cheaper model, 
but,.. 



42 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1 99 1 



MASSIVE PRICE 
REDUCTIONS 

NOW EVEN 
BIGGER 



asfiy; 



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PRINTERS O 



TRIAL 



(onfinued from page 42 



Epson LQ-400 




Low in price, the LQ-400 is good value, but is a little lacking in features. 



The LQ-400, Epson's budget 24-pin 
machine, is firmly targettecl at the 
lower price bracket, with a 
recommenced retail price which is 
£10 below even the Swift 9 and £20 
less than Citizen's own budget 
machine. Because of this, machine is 
about as vanilla as they come - 
fancy features like a band tractor and 
paper parking have been removed to 
make way for a 24-pin machine that 



comes in below the competition on 
price and yet produces output easily 
as good as a machine costing twice 
the price. 

In direct comparison to its nearest 
rival, the 124D, there would not 
seem to be much to choose between 
the two - and the Epson is cheaper. 
In practice though, some 
compromises have been made which 
do put this machine somewhere 



OKI MlCROLINE 380 



Okl's machine has a lot to recommend 

The Oki Microline 380 is an 

Epson/IBM compatible 24-pin print 
engine with less flash and more balls 
than many of the machines featured 
here. However, on the face of things 
it is one of the most expensive 
machines featured here and a bit of 
an ugly duckling. Weighing in at 
nearly 8kg it's one of the heaviest, 
too. Although I cannot claim to be 
familiar with Oki's earlier offerings in 
this class, it appears that the 380 is a 
rejigged version of an earlier design. 
Much of its voluminous size seems 
wasted in comparison to the sleeker 
offerings from Star and Epson. 
Nevertheless, I was impressed by the 



Thank you, darlings, 
thank you 

I would like to thank the following for 
their help and cooperation in the 
production of this article. Joe De Brirxaf 
(InfoTech Cleveland); Dave Stebbings BT 
Cleveland); Rosemary Gocki (Wanda Int.); 
Joyce Morris (Epson UK); Douglas Millard 
(5*ir); Ravi (NK>. 



It - except its outdated looks. 

routing of the data cable, which fits 
under the machine as opposed to 
sticking out the side or back. 

Setting up the machine for use 
with single sheets is a doddle; 
loading tractor feed paper is 
something else entirely. Normally you 
can just drop the paper on to band 
tractors, shut the covers and press the 
load button. Not with this machine, 
buster. For some strange reason, two 
paper guides are fitted just aft of the 
tractors - and the paper jams unless 
it is fed through these first. The 
manual, which on the whole is not 
bad, could hove been clearer on this 
point. Given the location of the 
tractors, this is likely to cause quite a 
number of mishaps. 

In use, the ML-380 is a relatively 
fast machine with a good quality 
output and some nice internal fonts. 
But when almost everyone else has 
gone over to fixed rollers in place of 
bail arms, Oki has retained them. I 
have nothing against bail arms, but 
two minutes using the newer roller 
method convinced me that they 
should stay firmly in the past. QJ 



behind its rival. The circular tractor is 
a pull only affair mounted just over 
the platen assembly - and has to be 
completely removed before the 
machine can be prepared for single 
sheets. This also costs the machine 
the benefit of paper parking - now 
surely a must on all but the very 
cheapest models. 

Having said all of that, in an 
environment where most of the 
printing is done on either single 
sheets or continuous stationary, this 
machine could quite happily do the 
job - with on obvious cost saving. 
The precarious mounting and design 
of the pull tractor unit, however, does 
mean that this machine is not likely to 
be good at printing labels - the 
paper path is much too bumpy. In 
such a case the 1 24D, with its bottom 
feed, would be a much better bet. 

Print quality is as good as the 
Citizen machine. Overall, this is a 
good little performer, and although it 
would not be first on my shopping 
list, it will probably find itself in a lot 
of homes. 




Checkout 

Oki Microline 380 



Features 17/20 

A fair number, but the pull tractor is an 
option, not standard. 

Performance 18/20 

Very good output quality in NIG and 
graphics... 

Build 10/15 

...but it feels flimsy when used. 

Ease of Use 12/20 

Docked four points for difficult tractor 
loading. 

Price 17/25 

Verging on expensive for what it offers. 




Performs well, but tt looks dated. 



Checkout 

Epson LQ-400 



Features 7/20 

Not much - you get what you pay for. . . 

Performance 17/20 

...and it performs well for the money. 

Build 12/15 

Cheap, but solid - like all good budget 
machines should be. 

Ease of Use 1 5/20 

Switching to condensed from o DIP is a 

real faff. 

Price 23/25 

What do you wont, blood? 




Great stuff from the 9-pin masters - even if 
this one has 241 



ooooooooo 

Shopping List 

NEC UK ltd 

FREEPOST, NEC House, 1 Victoria Road, 
London, W3 6BR" 081-993 9831 

Epson UK ltd 

Campus 100, Maylands Avenue, Hemel 
Hempstead, Hertfordshire, HP2 7EZ 
■ 0442 61 144 

Oki Europe ltd 

750-751 Deal Avenue, 
Slough, Berkshire SLMSH 
tr 0753 31292 

Citizen Europe ltd 
Wellington House, 
4 -10 Cowley Rood. 
Uxbridge UB8 2XU -n- 0895 72621 

Star Micronks UK ltd 

Stor House, 

Peregrine Business Pork, 

Gomm Rood, 

High Wycombe, 

BucksHP137DL 

* 0494 4711 II 






Citizen 1 24D 

This little baby is really in a 
class of its own. Not the best 
machine around, but it 
delivers 24-pin performance 
at a 9-pin price. In fact, the 
improved graphics 



performance makes this the budget choice for word publisher freaks. 




Best 9 pin Buys 



Star LC- 200 and 

Citizen Swift 9 

Nothing to choose between these. 
The Citizen comes out slightly 
better on performance, the Stor is 
better on looks. At the end of the 
day, there is little other than price 
to separate these two. 



Best 24 pin Buys 



Citizen Swift 24 and 
NSC Pinwriter 

The Pinwriter looks dated but 
performs well, the Citizen is more 
expensive but has some rather neat 
features. Once again there is very 
little to choose between the two - 
the decision is yours. 



44 



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■ GVP 48 MEG SCSI Drive plus 8 Meg Raraboard for 150(V2000 £41900 

, GOLDEN IMAGE HAND SCANNER with software plus Photon Paint £179 00 



NAKSHA CLONE MOUSE 



.£19.95 



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PRINTERS 



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STAR LC-10 MONO PRINTER mc Lead £159.00 

STAR LC-200 COLOUR PRINTER inc. Lead £209.00 

STAR LC-24/200 MONO PRINTER inc. Lead £249.00 

STAR LC-24/200 COLOUR PRINTER inc. Lead £297.00 

CITIZEN SWIFT 24 MONO inc. Lead £279.00 

| CITIZEN SWIFT 24 COLOUR inc. Lead £275.00 | 

| CITIZEN 124D 24 Pin Mono inc. Lead £195.00 | 

| CITIZEN 120D Plus. 9 Pin Mono inc. Lead £139.00 | 

I CITIZEN SWIFT 9 COLOUR £179.00 I 

I CANON BJ10E bubble jet £269.00 i 

I J 



AMIGA MEMORY 



I B2000 Microbotics 8M Ram Board ♦ 2 Meg RAM £159.00 

j Extra 2 Meg Ram for above board £75.00 

I A500 TARGET 512K Ram. With Clock * Switch £36.00 



r 

i 

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SUPRA/BAUD BANDIT 2400 MODEM 



Hayes Compat Autodial/answer. V21, 22. 22bis £124.00 Supra 2400 Plus. MNP5 ♦ V42 Bis (speeds up to 9600) £189.00 
As above but includes MNP5 error correction £159.00 New Supra 9600 Modem (speeds up to 38000) £399.00 



1 
I 
I 

J 



to 






< 



48 



HOW TO ORDER: 

Either call our number 

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ESKTOP PUBLISHING 






f all the great English 
poets, if any one sums up 
the beauty and wonder of 
the perfections and 
imperfections of natural things it has 
to be William Wordsworth. 

Throwing aside the popular 
romanticism and violent politics of his 
contemporaries, Wordsworth 
avoided poetic didacticism and 
instead concentrated on giving charm 
and novelty to everyday things. His 
originality and mass appeal to prince 
and pauper alike eventually gained 
him the highest accolade of poet 
laureate. (Get on with it - Ed.) 

Digita International, by calling its 
new word processor Wordworth, is 
unashamedly attempting to associate 
it, if not with the poet itself, then with 
the originality and perfection he 
strove for and with the beauty and 
tranquillity of his words. 

No doubt about it, Digita's 
Wordworth has a helluva big name 
to live up to. 

Wordworth is packed with 
features - so much so that Digita colls 
it a 'document processor' rather than 
a word processor. This is a slightly 
confusing term. What Digita means is 
that Wordworth is much more than a 
traditional word processor - that is, it 
does more than just process words. 
There's a case for saying that it is 
closer to desktop publishing than 
word processing. Perhaps 'word 
publisher' would be a better 
description. 

You've read about similar 
packages, you may even own one - 
programs such as ProWrite. 
Excellence, PenPal and KindWords to 
name but four. The big difference 
between these and more traditional 
word processors, such as Protext, 
WordPerfect and Scribblel, can be 
summed up in two words: fonts and 
graphics. (OK, that was three words, 
but you know what I mean.) 

Pretty as a picture 

The first time I loaded Wordworth, 
the shock almost knocked me off my 
chair. After selecting High Resolution 
from the Preferences requester (what 
the hell ... go for it!), there I was 






Jeff Walker pokes his finger into 
the nooks and crannies of Digita s 
new Wordworth word processor 



"A word processors is one of the 
staples of desktop publishing, 
and the more cost-effective it is, 
the better. £1 30 for Digita's new 
offering is a lot of anyone's 
money, so let's find out what 
Wordworth's worth." 

Jeff Walker 



staring at a Times proportional font in 
the screen and window title bars. 
Times in the pull-down menus as well. 
Was I seeing things? Isn't this the 
new look only possible under 
Workbench 2? Obviously not. 

Ah, but the screen was flickering 
away because I was running in 
interlace mode. So it was off to 
Wordworth's Preferences requester 
again to change back into flicker-free 
medium resolution and ... hello 
Topaz my old friend. Oh well, only to 
be expected. Times would have 
looked jaggy in med-res anyway. 

It's a shame because Wordworth 
doesn't look anywhere near as sexy 
in med-res as it does in hi-res, but 
that's largely true of most Amiga 
applications software. 

Tapping in a quick sentence 
reveals the default typeface: a tall, 
thin, non-proportional, difficult to 
read (in med-res) affair called 
Pica60. Soon change that - select 
Format/Typeface/Other and.... 

The point at issue 

Wordworth utilises standard Amiga 
bitmap fonts for both its screen 
display and its printed output. 
Absolutely any standard Amiga 
bitmap font, of any point size, can be 
used. No restrictions. By using the 
supplied special screen fonts (the 
default Pica60 was one of them), it 
can also take advantage of your 
printer's built-in fonts. 

As you hit the keyboard, 
characters appear on-screen as fast 
as they can be typed in; perhaps a 
trained touch-typist might notice a 
very slight lag, but the rest of us are 
not going to get distracted by words 
appearing on the screen after we 
have stopped typing, or having to 
wait for the screen to catch up before 
being able to go back and correct a 
mistake. In this department 
Wordworth is plenty fast. 



Words con be typed in any 
colour or mixture of colours; 
even the background colour 
can be changed, making 
WOBs (white-on-black) 
easy. Or yellow on blue, or 
orange on red even. 

Fonts are chosen from a 
dialogue box which, by 
default, lists all the 
typefaces and point sizes in 
the FONTS: directory. A 
Show gadget lets you see 
what any font looks like, in 
case you've forgotten, and 
further gadgets enable 
selection of Plain, Bold, 
Italic or Underline (or 
combinations) at this point 
without having to change 
styles with another menu 
selection later. It operates in 
almost the same way as the 
font requester in DPaint, 
allowing you to select 
another font directory if you 
have, for example, a 
floppyful on a separate 
disk. The difference is that 
in its requester Wordworth 
allows adjustment of the 
space between characters 
(tracking). 

Digita supplies a 
number of special fonts with 
Wordworth. There are 
some non-proportional ones 
for giving a proper 
WYSIWYG display of the 
printer's Pica (10 characters 
per inch), Elite (12 cpi), 
Condensed (15 cpi) and 
enlarged (5 cpi) typefaces. 
By WYSIWYG I mean that 
the characters you see on- 
screen match the width and 
height (in relation to the 
page) of the characters 
your printer will print. 

on page 50 



V 




Ham 



SUfClMlipl 

SuUcniH 



{5U 



I Scribble 1 can be summed 
w . vw w« three vwfla, 



(no| 



n'Ubjftph, 



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' ■ 



The flr»l lime I loaded WorOworth, the sh J ^ 

my chair After seiecung High Resolution TroW be Weterences 
'cquoster (wha! the hell, go (or it*)* there I was staring at a Times 
proponional font In the screen ana window title bars, oh wow! Times 
>n the pull-down menus as well Was t seeing things? IsnT this the 

new look only possible under Workbench 2 n Obviously not 



Ah p But the screen wis flickering away because I was running in 

Interlace mode So <i was ol 10 Wo/dwonh's Preferences requester 
again to change bao into flicker-free medium resolution and Hello 

Tooa: my old mend. Oh well only to be expected. Times would nave 
'oo^ ed u*» jaggy m med-res inputy. 

it's a shame because Wordworth doesnl too*' an/wftere near as 
c i ' lea-res as it does in hi-res, but then thai'siargery true of 
most A^iga aopiications software. I'm pining tor a mulisync monitor 
ara a n o er-flxer nw Until then, med-res it ** have lo be. 



5F5Z1 



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Piot* 



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Ah, Mtne screen was Ifetennjk?. c=:a-5= -ss" — ing in 
interlace mode.Soilwasafto Wonkuth's P±kk requester 
2310 to change back into Ite-free medium resolution and. Hek 
Topaz my old friend Oh wel, only to be expected, Times would have 
looked well jaggy in med-res anyway. 






It's a shame oecause Wordrt doesn\ look an^tiere near as 
sexy in med-res as i does in hi-res, but then that's largely true of 



Wordvforth is a delight to look at 
and use in high resolution (top), but 
the annoying flicker will almost 
certainly mean you'll be working in 
medium resolution (bottom) most of 
the time, in which text and graphics 
appear elongated. 



" 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1991 



49 



DESKTOP PUBLSHI 



UutJt-jrui"]" 

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you car *yoc mem. ptm*c» § irrad toutf-typ'tt *«•* noftct • 
-r> »)*grr t& 0u» tht i it o* *s are *oi googto gr df&acted by 
■fl'O* iOpCirrq on thf tcrtm Mr ■*• *eWf MplMO Tyi*^ p 
navv>9 to ««r to* nt icr«r to c«^ « Mont bftra ai^c ta go 
a»c» #-: »*«c»»' - - rooor v xm worp^rhfipunfy 

Words- , t*< ' : in any colour 

mi colours even the 

background colour can be changed, 
makih g^^g (white-on-blackjea sy 

whatever. 



onure c*cionlroroi 




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^VtfOCt) ire cent *c«4 m ytw FCtVTS dUtWy A S*o* fiftdQt 

*>V^'*« un *« r1 V , onnoo*5We. inco^wWlorjoneo, *ro 
juigrs 4*9*10 mm PtaKBrt stale or'Jndrvtetryi 
CQMMttn af. * W * 00* *maut f»***g *o cnrei eyfct* «#> 
■notrv *•% MieC ef jn «* r aortu* n ve* &h cac **r 

As well as being able to change the 
colour of any letter/ Wordworth also 
fully supports Colorfonts (like those 
supplied with DPaint III). 




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1 f*entr quality r#»u»» 



The font selector (above) is quick and 
easy to use. Note that the tracking 
(character spacing) is set from here. 



A small one-page document (below), 
with a picture in 16- colour hi-res 
mode eats up more than 600,000 
bytes of chip RAM. 



ordworihviu ivvi ijjgjia Iniernauutial 

document; AtSea j 



from page 49 

Design-wise they look 
different, because 
different printers have 
different built-in fonts. 

Also supplied are four 
standard Amiga bitmap 
fonts: serif, sans serif, one 
fancy and one dingbats 
(symbols), each in 12pt, 
24pt, 48pt and 96pt and 
specially designed to 
utilise Wordworth'* 
UltraPrint facilities, 
whereby a jaggy font can 
be printed at four times 
the screen resolution. 

This feature, unique to 
Wordworth, means that 
any standard Amiga 
bitmap font can be output 
at almost the highest 
resolution your printer is 
capable of. There's a bit 
more to it than this, plus a 
small catch - to display 
(and output) a particular 
size font under Kickstart 
1 .3 you need to have a 
file containing the correct 
size characters in that 
particular typeface. If you 
want, say, Helvetica 
36pt, then you have to 
have a file called 36 in 
the Helvetica directory. 
Under Kickstart 2 things 
have changed. Fonts are 
re-scalable, even bitmap 
ones. This means that to 
get Helvetica 36pt you 
only need one size of that 
typeface and the 
operating system will 
automatically scale it to 
the size you require. 

So for UltraPrint to 
work under KS1 .3 at its 



i-y) km 



JARGO 




BUSTING 




t-^-4- 



i" ■ !■ "1 



At sea ott the Isle ot Man 

Bold words affirmed, in days when faith was strong 

And doubts and scruples seldom teased the brain. 

Thai no adventurer's bark had power to gain 

These shores if he approached them bent on wrong. 

For, suddenly up-con|ured from the Main, 

Mints rose to hide the Land - that search, though long 

And eager, might still be pursued in vain. 

Fancy' what an age was that for song* 

That age. when not by laws inanimate. 

As men believed, the waters were impelled. 

The air controlled, the stars their courses held, 

But elements and orb on acts did wait 

Of Powers endued with visible form, instinct 

Wrth will, and to their work by passion linked 

William Wordsworth 



ASCII: 



IFF: 



American Standard Code for Information Interchange it rhe data storage 
code commonly used for text files. 

Interchange File Format is a means by which graphics and sound data 
are stored on the Amiga so they can be swapped between programs. 

INTERLACE: is a method used to double the apparent vertical resolution of an image 
by alternately refreshing the screen at a slight vertical offset, thus 
squeezing an extra line between each of the lines of a non-interlaced 
screen. Unfortunately, interlace screens flicker. 



WYSIWYG: What You See Is What You Get, as opposed to word processors whose 
screen display bears little resemblance to the output they produce. 



highest resolution it needs to have a 
font on-disk at four times the size of 
the on-screen font, which explains the 
four point sizes supplied with each of 
the Digita fonts. 

As well as medium and high 
resolution, which affect the vertical 
resolution of the screen, Wordworth 
has two width resolutions: 60 or 80 
dots per inch (dpi), which is a way of 
squeezing even greater resolution 
output from bitmap fonts. At its 
highest setting, UltraPrint prints at 
four times the screen resolution - an 
impressive 320 x 288 dpi to the 
printer when in 80 dpi screen mode. 

The kind of document you want 
to create, plus the amount and type 
of RAM you hove installed, have to 
be the most important considerations 
before buying Wordworth. 

The program requires 1Mb, but 
remember that this is a minimum for 
the creation of simple documents. 
Long documents, multiple documents, 
colour and graphics will all require 
more memory. And chip memory at 
that, especially for multiple 
documents, colour and graphics. 

As an example of how quickly 
Wordworth can gobble up memory, 
take a look at the image below left. 
Wordworth is running in 16-colour, 
hi-res interlace mode. The document 
is just a single page with a few 
words on it plus an IFF graphic (you 
can only see a bit of it). Chip 
memory usage is more than 600,000 
bytes. On top of that, Wordworth will 
be using about another 400,000 
bytes of fast RAM to run in. 

OK, so we can conserve memory 
by using fewer colours and not 
running in interlace, but even if we 
manage to cut the chip memory 
usage in half you can see that we'd 
be sailing very close to the wind on a 
5 1 2k chip RAM machine 

In fact, my example document, 
created on a 1 Mb chip RAM B2000 
(plus 6Mb fast), will only open in 
four-colour, med-res mode on a 5 1 2k 
chip RAM Amiga 500. Even then, 
Wordworth had to close down the 
Workbench. When using Wordworth 
to create large documents with 
colourful graphics, 1Mb of chip RAM 
plus another 1 Mb of fast RAM is the 
minimum memory requirement. 

For straightforward word 
processing, where all you're 



concerned with is boshing out words, 

5 12k of chip and 5 12k of fastis 
plenty. With a second floppy drive 
fitted and booting from the 
Wordworth disk you are left with 
about 350k RAM in total, 90 per 
cent of which is chip. 

Graphics 

If an Amiga word processor has the 
ability to import graphics, then it 
needs to be implemented properly. At 
the very least it should import a good 
selection of IFF graphics formats at 
least up to 32 colours. 

To keep within the true 
WYSIWYG spirit, graphics need to 
be displayed accurately on-screen 
(and printed) in as many colours (or 
grey scales) as the user chooses, 
which may well be fewer colours 
than there are in the original graphic. 
Also, users needs to be able to re- 
scale the graphic and automatically 
run text around it. 

Wordworth can import all IFF 
graphics formats up to ond including 
HAM. It can't handle 24-bit. 
Although Wordworth can import 32- 
colour. Extra HalfBrite (64-colour) 
and HAM (4,096-colour) graphics, it 
can only display them in a maximum 
of 16 colours. So HAM pictures, for 
example, get automatically translated 
into 16-colour images A button 
allows you to use the picture's 
palette, which results in Wore/worm 
mapping colours 4-16 to those most 
often used in the graphic. For HAM 
pictures the loss in quality is 
immense, but 32 and 64-colour 
graphics translate surprisingly well. 

Loading times differ. From floppy, 
a piece of black-and-white clip art 
takes 1 seconds to load and appear 
on-screen and a 1 6-colour 640 x 
5 1 2 picture takes about 90 seconds, 
while loading a 4,096-colour HAM 
picture takes six minutes. Selecting 
Use Pic's Palette adds between 30 
seconds and two minutes to the wait. 

Graphics load in at their correct 
aspect ratios. When working in med- 
res mode they may appear to be 
elongated, but this is due to the 
elongated shape of med-res pixels; 
when sent to the printer or viewed in 
hi-res mode they are the correct 
shape. Pictures can be re-scaled by 
grabbing one of the handles around 
the edge of the graphic and 



50 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1991 



ESKTOP PUBLISHING 



dragging the pointer to the desired 
position. Holding down the Shift key 
while grabbing and dragging 
preserves the original aspect ratio. 

The re-scaling and subsequent re- 
display of black-and-white clip art is 
almost instantaneous - 16-colour 
pictures take about 60-90 seconds; 
HAMs take a couple of minutes. 

Scaling down is accurate 
enough, but enlarging a graphic 
results, not surprisingly, in blockier 
and blockier images. Scale a picture 
down and then enlarge it and the 
resultant image is almost 
unrecognisable. However you don't 
expect sophisticated graphics scaling 
features from a word processor, and 
the simple scaling facilities of 
Wordworth are going to be good 
enough for most users. If you want 
more power then you should really 
be looking to buy a DTP package. 

Wordworth can run text around 
graphics in two ways. First there's the 
simple method of an automatic 
vertical boundary between the edge 



"No doubt about it, 

Digita's Wordworth 

has a helluva big 

name to live up to" 



of the graphic (left or right-hand side) 
and the text. Alternatively you can 
cause the text to flow around the 
contours of the graphic. This works 
wonderfully well with black-and-white 
clip art, but more thought is needed 
with colour pictures because the 
contour-flowing is achieved by 
Wordworth making colour of the 
graphic transparent, letting the white 
of the background paper show. If 
any details in the graphic use colour 
0, these too will turn transparent, 
letting the paper shine through and 
making them look a little weird. 

Like vertical runaround, contour 
runoround can flow the text around 
the left or the right of the graphic, but 
not both. The space that should be 
left between the graphic and the text 
- the 'standoff' - is user configurable 
for each graphic in the document. 

If no runaround is selected, text 
can be laid over the top of graphics. 

More thought is needed if the 
document has, say, two colour 
pictures in it with different, conflicting 
palettes. Wordworth has a Remap 
option which will attempt to create a 
new compromise palette. But the 
more colour pictures in the document 
with different palettes, the worse 
each is going to look (and print) after 
a remap. 

But you'll probably be using 
black-and-white clip art most of the 



time, if for no other reason than 
because you don't have a colour 
printer and you know from 
experience that unless created with a 
grey-scale screen dump in mind, 
colour pictures look awfully muddy 
when sent to a monochrome printer, 
even one with lasers in it. 

The right words 

Wordworr/i's dictionary is the same 
one many other word processors use. 
Compiled by Collins, it is the English 
version and contains 1 10,000 
words, including the usual 26,000 
Merriom-Webster legal and medical 
supplement. There's a thesaurus as 
well, for those moments when you 
can't think of the exact word 
(comment, declaration, expression, 
remark, utterance...) you want. 

Spelling checking proceeds at an 
acceptable rate; not that it's quick, 
but it is as fast as Profexf s spelling 
checker, which is no slouch. 

For best performance, the 
dictionaries can be copied to RAM. 
Words ore checked phonetically, 
which means if you spell something 
by how it sounds, Wordworth will 
almost certainly provide the correct 
spelling, provided it is in the 
dictionary, of korse. {Wordworth 
suggests: horse, worse, curse, 
coarse, course...) 

The spelling dialogue box is easy 
to understand and use; the only slight 
criticism I have is that the process is 
slowed down by the program asking 
for confirmation every time you 
choose to save a word to your user 
dictionary. Considering the user 
dictionary can be easily and 
completely edited from outside of the 
spelling checker, confirmation is 
really unnecessary. 

The thesaurus knows 140,000 
synonyms for 30,000 words. There is 
no antonym or word definition 
facility; the former is an omission, but 
the lack of definitions is because 
Collins doesn't supply this module for 
the English dictionary, only the 
American one, which is downright 
daft of them. Word definitions are 
important for anyone who is not 
perfectly at home with the English 
language. For example, in the above 
spelling mistake, the user may only 
have a good enough knowledge of 
English to recognise that the correct 
spelling for 'korse' is either 'coarse' 
or 'course'; the final decision can 
only be made by looking up the 
definition of each. 

And don't give me any hassle 
about looking them up in a 
dictionary. Using that argument, a 
computer dictionary and thesaurus 
become redundant. 

On top of the dictionary and 
thesaurus, Wordworth has a 
Glossary utility. In this requester you 
can enter the phrases you use most 
often - your name and address, for 



example, or standard letter 
openings and endings. 
Double clicking a glossary 
entry inserts it at the current 
cursor position in the text. 

Wordworth is able to 
load text saved by other 
programs. It knows 
specifically about 
WordPerfect. ProWrite and 
Protext, plus it can import 
generic ASCII and IFF text. 
Any graphics in on alien- 
format document will be 
discarded, but type styles 
and paragraph formatting 
ore preserved. 

Wordworth' s own file 
format is IFF, but a new 
type of Digita's own 
invention. From the 
document headers it 
appears to be called 
WOWO (like pictures are 
ILBMand music is SMUS). 
It adheres to the IFF rules, 
with all the relevant 
document information held 
in different chunks. 

As all graphics in a 
Wordworth document ore 
stored with text, file sizes 
can get huge, particularly if 
you have used many large 
colour pictures. 

The alternative is to just 
store the information about 

continued on page 52 



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Contour flow is deeply wonderful. 
Printer fonts and graphics can be 
output to the same page by feeding 
the paper through once for the text 
and then again for the graphics. It's 
more accurate than you'd expect. 



I>jaimenl: Untitled 1 



{^C 



1 ■ 1 ' i ' i 



i ■ ' A k- 





Scaling down is 
easy enough, 
but enlarging 
produces 
blockier and 
blockier pictures, 
especially if you 
enlarge a picture 
that has 
previously been 
shrunk. 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1991 



51 



DESKTOP PUBLISHING 



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The glossary is where you put all 
those phrases and paragraphs you 
use most often; names and addresses 
are the most obvious things to store 
here, but standard letter openings 
and endings are another idea. If you 
change the glossary and quit 
Word worth without saving, you will 
be reminded of the fact and asked for 
confirmation to quit. 



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WoroWortri supports some alien file 
formats. It will recognise style 
changes (bold, italic and so on) but 
will discard any graphics in non- 
Wordworth documents. Once the file 
format is chosen, Wore/worth will 
save in that format as well, so make 
sure you change the file format after 
importing as (say) ASCII/ unless an 
ASCII save is what you want. 



continued from page 5) 

which disk each of the 
pictures in the document 
is on and load them 
separately when 
needed. The advantage 
of this is that the 
document itself remains 
small, text loads quickly 
and graphics can be 
present in the document 
but 'unloaded' for 
speedier screen refresh 
and conservation of that 
most precious of gifts, 
chip memory. Also, 
because the pictures are 
not fixed to the 
document, neither are 
they fixed to the 
document's screen 
resolution and palette, 
so each picture can be 
output (but not 
displayed) in its original 
format and colours. The 
advantage of the way 
Wordworth does it is 
that graphics and text 
remain together, so you 
don't lose a picture 
because you can't find 
the disk it's on. Also, the 
smaller you re-scale a 
picture, the smaller the 
resultant file size. 

Wordworth'% file 
requester is a pleasure to 
use. One window in the 
requester for files, one 
for drawers and devices, 
plus options for setting a 
filter and showing a 
sorted or unsorted list. Its 
only fault is the length of 
time it takes to read in a 
large directory from 
floppy. It doesn't update 
the files window as it is 
reading the disk, so you 
have to wait until the 
whole directory is read 
before clicking on a 
filename. 








tor the English dictionary, only the American one. wtuch , ;;c T.grv 
hlnnriv Munirt r/'hem Wnrri definitions are imnnrtant fn» anvnnp whn 




HELP 




ww.ciitckout 







JH1: 

.TO: 
FHC: 

PJUj. 




Filter p?.inro 



Drawer |RRD:Hni*d»ortR''eopy " 

Documem (SS [ ~ 



|7 Excluding 
f~ No Son 



Up to 1 00 multiple documents can be 
opened, memory permitting. Each 
document window multitasks, so you 
can be editing one while printing 
another. There is no option to merge 
one document from disk straight into 
another, although this can be got 
round by opening both documents, 
cutting the text from one and pasting 
it into the other. 

Layout 

Horizontal and vertical rulers are 
provided - both can be switched on 
and off and measurements can be in 
inches, centimetres, picas, points, 
pitch or pixels. All tab positions - left, 
right, centre and decimal - can be 
set by simply selecting which you 
require from a set of four icons, 
pointing at the horizontal ruler and 
clicking where you want them. 
Correcting a mistake is done by 
dragging the tab arrows along the 
ruler, or get rid of them completely by 
dragging them off the ruler. 

Special para 

There are two special markers on the 
ruler which are used for paragraph 
indents and outdents. The top marker 
sets the margin position for the first 
word in a paragraph, the bottom 
marker sets the margin for 
subsequent lines in the paragraph. By 
having the top marker set to the right 
of the bottom marker, outdents are 
possible, vice-versa for indents. By 
dragging the bottom marker while 
holding the right mouse burton down, 
both margins can be adjusted at 
once while keeping their positions 
relative to each other. 

A layout style for the whole 
document can be set or, by dragging 
a block over paragraphs, each can 
have its own style, allowing you to 
mix indents and outdents and tab 
positions freely. Once a paragraph's 
style has been set, further margin and 
tab changes to other parts of the 
document won't affect that 
paragraph unless it is highlighted. 

Line spacing is adjustable. If you 
are using your printer's built-in 
character set, then you are effectively 
restricted to six or eight lines per 
inch, single spaced, single-and-o-half 
spaced or double spaced. 
Wordworth will let you select another 
type of line spacing for printer fonts 
(measured in points), but the output 
will be garbage. 

Bitmap fonts can be line-spaced 
any way you like and will print as 
they are on-screen. Printer fonts and 
bitmap fonts can be mixed on-screen, 
even on the same line. 

Justification is left, right, centred 
or flush. Automatic hyphenation is 
available (mainly of use with flush- 
justified copy) but its implementation 
is far from perfect. There is no 
exceptions dictionary, and you can't 
dictate the minimum number of 



characters to hyphenate after or 
before, so awkward word breaks 
crop up quite a lot. This needs to be 
improved in later versions. 

Character spacing (tracking) can 
be adjusted for the whole font or for 
only the highlighted text. When flush- 
justifying, Wordworth uses the 
normal method of inserting extra 
space between each word; it cannot 
automatically compensate for large 
gaps between words on a line by 
automatically adjusting the tracking. 
Again, something for Digita to think 
about for later versions. 

Paragraph spacing con be 
adjusted so that extra space is added 
before, after, or both before and 
after, each paragraph in the 
document or only those highlighted. 
This is an excellent feature which 
saves you pressing Return an extra 
time if you wont a blank line between 

buts 

Originally Wordworth was called 
'Quartz'. Huh? The reason for 
that name may have been crystal 
clear to the programmer, but not 
to the people he was working for. 
Digita boss Jerry Rhyll came up 
with the name 'Wordsworth', but 
the 'powers that be' won't let you 
register names as trademarks, so 
the "s" in the middle was dropped 
and Wordworth was born. 



& BOBS 



each paragraph. Using the 
paragraph spacing facility you can 
adjust spacing quickly and easily 
should you change your mind about 
document layout. 

Headers and footers aren't 
forgotten. These form part of the top 
and bottom margins of a page; you 
edit them once and they get 
displayed and printed on every page 
in the document. 

Alternatively, you can have 
different headers and/or footers for 
left and right-hand pag©*- There's 
also a burton to let you switch off 
headers and footers for the first page 
of a document - handy for a title 
page, but if you want, for example, 
three or four pages of contents 
without headers and footers before 
the main document starts, there's no 
option for it. Neither is there an 
option to change the style or content 
of headers/ footers mid-document. 

Page numbering can be in one of 
five different styles: ordinary 
numbers, uppercase or lowercase 
roman numerals, or uppercase or 
lowercase letters (after page 26 it 
changes to AA, AB, AC and so on). 

continued on poo* 57 



52 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1991 



-cl 






5M VA IV "*ft*a t *HA** i| 



mtDOntWfttoM Mint 







Wl COMPUTUS f «M» TO *G 

fWWHH 



MATMUfc 



POWER COMPUTING 



LOW 



Amiga 500 

from Power Computing 



Printers 




StarLCIOmono 


£169 


Star LC200 colour 


£219 


Star LC24-200 24 pin mono 


£259 


Star LC24-200 24 pin colour 


£299 



Star XB24-10 Professional 24 pin 
colour £399 

Star XB24-15 Wide professional 24 pin 
colour £499 



Amiga500512K £330 

Amiga5001MB £350 

Amiga5002MB £395 

Amiga 500 1MB + 40MB hard disk £639 
Packs do not include software unless specifically staled 



LC10 colour fabric printing kit 
(forT-Shirtsetc) 

NEWLC200Colourfabrickit 



£17 



£29 



FlexidumpAmiga £34.95 

All printers come with a parallel printer cable 



S o f t w a r 


e 


Pro Page 2.0 


£179 


Pro Video Post 


£149 


Pro Write 


£85 


5culpt-Animate40 


£279 


Broadcast Tiller II 


£179 


X Cad Designer 


£77 


X Cad Professional 


£229 


Deluxe Paint III 


£87 


Digiview Gold V4 


£102 


Pixmate 


£35 


Vista 


£49 


Distant Suns 


(36 


Pen Pal 


£81 


Cross Dos 


(25 


Devpac Amiga 


£45 


Hisoft Basic 


£55 


LatticeCv5 


£149 


LatticeC + + 


(250 


Hisoft Pro Flight 


£34 


Pro Draw 


£100 


Quarter Back 


£35 


Videotitler 


£100 


Turbo Silver 


£100 


Director V2 


£POA 


Photon Paint II 


£85 


Bars&Pipes 


£120 




ICDAdspeed 

ICD Flicker Free Video 

ICDFFV + VGA Monitor 

Hardwearing dust cover 
Philips colour monitor Mkll 
KCS PC Power Board 



£175 
£250 
£499 

£9 

£249 
£235 



£169 
£199 



AT-Once 

(2000 Version also available) 

Floppy disks (mm quantity 50) £0 34 each 

Maxell branded multicolour disks 
box of 10 £9.95 

All t»»l* mart* *clro*it9gtd 



NAME 



TELEPHONE No. 



ADDRESS 



POSTCODE 



[ 



SYSTEMOWNED 



(PlPiV A* 



EXPIRY DATE 



SIGNATURE 




Fully SCSI compatible 
Upto8MBFASTRAMon-board 
High speed "FAASTROM" controller 
Auto-boot from FFS partition 
All combinations available 



50MB 
100MB 



£450 
£699 



Chips 




256Kx4DRAM 

1MB x 1 DRAM 

1M6x8Simm 

4MBx8Simm 

1MBx4Zip 

8372 Fatter Agnus 



£6 

£6 

£40 

£150 

£25 

£69 



*. 



ftlft 



7^ 



l 

GVPSeries2Hard Disk s5E 



O- ** 



H^ 



'■lift 



m i * *r 



! 



. >d 



-v 



ii' 



W 






E3 



DESCRIPTION 



MAKE CHEQUES PAYABLE TO 

POWERCOMPUTINGLTD 



v± 



I 



k ■• 



IENCL0SE ACHEQUE/POFOR 




- 



POWERCOMPUTINGLTD 
Unit 8 Railton Road Woburn Road Industrial Estate Kempston Bedford MK42 7PN 

Tel 0234 843388 Fax 0234 840234 

All pncec include VAT and are subject to change 




i i' 



f% I 




PRICES INC.DELIVERY & VAT ® 17.5% 

Express Courier Delivery : 
(UK Mainland Only) E6.50 Extra 



BUY WITH CONFIDENCE from on* of the longtst t*t»WI*hed 

tomp»nle» in 1h*?ir held, with * reputation for good Mrvice 
And prices We have invested heavily In a computer f wtm m to 
enable our Telesales staff to provide up-to-1 he- mlnule stock 
Informal Ion coupled with highly efficient order processing 
Our fully equipped Workshop enables us to carry out almost 
arty repair on our premlees We leel sure thai you won t be 
tl you chooee Evesham Micro*. 



HOW TO ORDER 



n 




Call us now on 

0386 765500 

Lines open Monday -Saturday. 
9.00am - 5.30pm 



^C, Send Cheque. Postal Order or 
*^~U ACCESS/VISA card details to : 

Evesham Micros Ltd 

Unit 9, St Richards Rd. 

Evesham, Worcs 

WRIT 6XJ 



& 



ACCESS /VISA 
Cards Welcome 



^ 



Government. Education & PLC orders welcome 

Same day despatch whenever possible 
Express Courier delivery (UK Mainland only) C 6.50 extra 

Please note that 5 working days must be allowed for 
personal cheque clearance. 



Mail Order Fax: Q386-765354 



Unit 9 St Richards Road. Evesham 
Worcestershire WRH 6XJ 

IT 0386 765180 

'a. 0186 765354 
Open Mot, Sol POP 5 30 

5 Glisson Rd. Cambridge CBI 2HA 
IT 0223 323898 

'o« 0J23 322883 

Open MorvFfi 9 30-600 

and Sat. .900- 530 

Corporate Soles Dept • iBMaeaier 

1 762 Pershore Road. Cotleridge 
Birmingham B30 3BH 

*T 02 1 458 4564 

. 021433 3825 
I OpenMon-Sat 9 00 5 30 



\ 



TECHNICAL 
SUPPORT 



?? 0386-40303 

Monday to Fnday. 10 00 ■ 5.30 



12 MONTHS WARRANTY 
ON ALL PRODUCTS 

AB deto's comet il ftm« of go*ng 10 press ■ An goeds suhect tc awiac* I \ 



• • 9 • 



• • • # 



• • • 



AMIGA 1 500/2000 UPGRADES 



HARD DRIVE / RAM UPGRADE BOARD KIT 

Kits comprise of full stze hard dtsK controller cards 
incorporating unpopulated SIMMS RAM expansion sockets 
for accommodal'ng up to 8Mb RAM, PLUS high speed, fast 

access NEC SCSI hard disks 

40MB HARD DRIVE & INTERFACE / RAM CARD ... C 349.00 

100M0 HARD DRIVE 6 INTERFACE / RAM CARD.. Z 499.00 

PLEASE NOTE ThMeiteurwjpu'aWflAMsockett A*joC"9 00oe' 

2Mb o) saw requited 



8Mb RAM Expansion Cord with 2Mb Fitted 

easily upgradeable to 4Mb. 6MD or 8Mb 



£149 95 




f€ BREAKTHROUGH! 



AT LAST... the chance to buy 

Quality, High Capacity Hard 

Disk Systems for the Amiga 

500 at realistically /ovv pricesl 



40Mb MODEL ONLY £ 299 
1 0OMb MODEL ONLY £ 449 

2Mb MM Vernon: AM C 100 . 4Mb RAM Vmiem ADD C2Q0 



NEC SCSI Hird Dtftk Mechanisms for optimum performance 
25ms Access Time & Aulooarking 

Includn Its own Dedicated PSU CBM recommends against use o* 
Hard Dtshs without ^dependent power auppiy 
I Option fc up to 4MB of sdd.fionaJ RAM Eipansion 

rnc'udes SCSI Tbroughpoi a: 'ea' *o* njine* eiwnswjn 
Hegh quality melai casing colour maic^ed 10 me Am*ga 500 
Includes MRBACKUP Pro" as well as Conf.guratioa Formal software 



AMIGA A500 SOLDERLESS RAM UPGRADES 




512K 

RAM/CLOCK 
UPGRADE 




inc, VAT and delivery 



Direct replacement for the A501 expansion Convenient On / Oft 
Memory Switch Auto-recharging battery backed Real-Time Clock 
Compact Unit Size : Ultra-neat design Only 4 low power FASTRAMs 



1.5MB RAM BOARD 



Fully populated board increase* total RAM m A5O0 to 2Mb! I Plugs into vacant 
trapdoor area, & connects to GARY chip . Includes auto-recharging battery- 
backed real-time Clock Socketed RAM ICs (or accommodating up to 1.5Mb RAM 



Unpopulated RAM board with clock Z 34.95 i N6 The e»oans>on board 

RAM Board with 51 2K FASTRAM installed ... C 54.95 r*iu"« k<vs-ji < 3 to 

RAM Board with 1Mb FASTRAM installed E 69.95 K^mtirfiTuograde 

RAM Board with 1 .5Mb FASTRAM installed.. £ 79.00 • available from us lor E29 95 '■ 



* 




NEW! 'MEG ABOARD' | ONLY 

£59.95 



CjQinfnAfito to, yjwtr SllJK RAMI 

Uf^rQjdl^ to gJM* I.SIM 

With our MEGABOARD, you can further expand your A500 s 
memory to a total of 2Mb withguj disposing of your existing 51 2K 
upgrade (must be 4 x RAM-chip type, or not exceeding 9cm in length) 



MEGABOARD needs Ki 
to operate (Kick start 1 3 w 

available from us tot t29 95) 
InaHWaBon requires connection to 

the GAAY cruo E**vto«o«ow 



3'/," EXTERNAL FLOPPY DRIVES 



AMAZING LOW PRICE 1 

£54.95 

Including VAT & delivery 




• Very quiet 

• Slimline design 

• Suits any Amiga 

• Cooling Vents 

• Sleek, high quality metal casing 

• Quality Citizen/Sony Drive Mechanism 

• On / Off switch on rear of drive 

• Full 880K Formatted Capacity 

• Long reach connection cable 



AHo available: 

5 25" External Drive 

40/80 Track Switchable 

Only C 99.00 mc.VAT/dellvery 



AMAnsa v iva aamDNi saiiud nv 



S9JHU mmsaAa 



AMAma y iva aamoNi saDiud nv 



ALL PRICES INCLUDE VAT & DELIVERY 



Evesham Micros 



ALL PRICES IN 



wimmmmn 



ERY 



•vypi amplified stereo 



speakers 



REAUSE THE 

TRUE SOUND 

POTENTIAL OF 

YOUR AMIGA 

WITH THIS PAIR 

OF FULL RANGE 

SPEAKERS ! 



Your Am-g# praducw fM quality hvh 9t*r«o *ound 
Enfjf quality it»r«o tounO '•p'oducl-on lo fft# ruff 
«rth th* *w:»«l*V dM^ad put n*# twm ftpM**' 
sysiini' F«tufi* ■•!*•»■ pcytad »*•*•* dtugn nvth 3 
*>*kw»o oVfvart r Mef> untf and rovpcKaiat a 
bu*-*r. amo^^ arm adfutfab^a voiuma centred fluAt 
lnjm PSU ltu«*»<fl or tn*n bananas inc* ndmMD 

Spaa**' £><'"*n*ort* 7«*9J* r^Smrr* (HnWaDi 




ONLY 
£39.95 



CBM A590 HARD DISK 



Good quality Commodora 20Mb Hard D*fc unrl 

Kludaigrliown PSUandbutll-r coolrgfan Faalurtt 

sochati for up lo ?Mb ot on board FA5TRAM eipansion 

{§•* bakM) ROm» ^ccata l"m# wrth up lo ? 4Mb/t#c 

Iranalar wa Auigoooii *h*xi u$ad ** K<kitart 1 3 



ONLY 
£279.00 



CtM A590 UPGRADES 



(RAM upgra 
S12K RAMUpgratfa 
1Mb RAM Upgrada 
2Mb RAM UpgracSa 

NEC 40Mb SCSI Drtva raplacamant rechaniari 
NEC lOOMb SCSJ Dfiva raptacamanl machaniam 



fitted fraa o* cftarya -h^o boughl ^m A5W) 

C29 95 

£59 95 

CH95 

C 199.00 

C 340 00 



A590 ADD-ON HARD DRIVES 



ASM OWNERS' Expand your hard disk aloraga further wilh ona ol 

our add-on. artarnally cased SCSI Hard Dnvaa. faaluring 25ms 

auloparVing NEC mechanisms with separata power supply Simply 

plugs into the socket provided on the rear of the A590 Hard Otsk unit. 

Eitemn 40Mb SCSI Dnve cased with PSU 

lo dtreeffy Add on to the Commodore A590 C 29900 

Extern*! 100Mb SCSI Drive cased w*h PSU C 449 00 



TRUEMOUSE 




WE GUARANTEE that this ii the 
smoothest, most responsive and 
accurate replacement mouse you 

can buy for the Amiga. Eiceilent 
performance amazing low price ! 



OH ^ QC SATISFACTION 
Z_ I /.yO GUARANTEED 



<. 



GOLDEN IMAGE OPTICAL MOUSE Amiga'ST compatible - 
excellent uevel & accuracy assured E 37.95 



GOLDEN IMAGE HANDY 

SCANNER & TOUCH-UP 



Outstanding qua^ty. •icef!*"* value tor way - ints 

oacwga <"cude$ a tOO-tOOdn* icannaf **1h d-ttw optou 

ptua cna av^w^v pofx^ui TOUCH UP »fT**vt 

pacUga wn<* drives TM tca^ne* &*tctof Scalar 

ret joes vew^^g #»nrjow 4 Ofrcw^jn* lor accural 

scans eve^r *"* Scan •** *rw+r\ or g*ay 

"-*gts up to 400d(h Ma*y <magt 

en^a^ceTem a speoa- aftacts ava-etxa 

from wrffiifl TowC'Up A sen* r>« 

i"vw*eni >ry Drufciop P^Wen^g nnxK 




| ONLY £179^00 



INCLUDING VAT 
AND DELIVERY 



NEW! ROCGEN GENLOCK 




YOU WILL HAVE TO PAY AT LEAST 
TWICE AS MUCH MONEY to 

obtain a atmllar tovd of 
quality, function and 
tophittkation oflarad by 
our new GENLOCK adaplar . 
contpattbta lo all Amiga*! Many 
apeoai diatom •nc*ud» the afcAry 
to racord graphca A an>matM>nt on 
vdeo tecordart ovarUy graphic and 
onto vtd#o and ume your domestx: 
colour TV is a colour monitor Capable 
ol smooth and stable lading and 
overlaying effects Wlfi ftpooal tuning knob 



ONLY £114.99 



PHILIPS 1 5" TV/MONITOR 




Wrtr to o-KftcaM rnonftor input th* mod* 

conbrws thv sdvantagtt o* » n»gh «<*> madhae 

raaoMion cotour mgnWcy wtm tna conva n ttn et ot 

rvnou control TtMatf TV • H an ticeWt Kw price I 

NEW Vtrilon tfsturn dark gLau teraen for riprovad 

contriit. pkit full fin^t >«iy *p#ait#r wund outpul 



COCQ HO Including VAT, 
LilDy.UU delivery A cable 



Philips CM8833 Mk.H including cable £ 239 00 



AMIGA 

SPECIAL DEALS 



AMIGA 500 
COMPUTER 
BASE PACK 



FMIurts a Genuine UK verson 512K 
Commodore Amiga 500 computer with 

1 Mb Internal Dnve. TV Modulalor. 

Mouse. Power Supply. Kckstad 1 3. elc 

AMIGA 500 BASE PACKAGE 

ONLY £ 307.49 

A500 PACK AS ABOVE, WITH 

51 2K RAM/CLOCK FITTED 

ONLY £ 333.99 

A500 PACK 

WITH EXTERNAL 37*" DRIVE 

ONLY £ 357.49 

A500 PACK WITH EXTERNAL 

37." DRIVE AND 51 2K RAM/ 

CLOCK UPGRADE FITTED 

ONLY £ 383.99 

N B Do** NOT include extra software 
included with other packages 



LOOK WHAT ELSt 
YOU GET WHEN YOU 

BUY AN AMIGA 
fEATVRt PACK FROM 



Evesnammcros; 



; THESE FABULOUS GAMES: 

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AMIGA 500 SCREEN GEMS PACK 



Includes Amiga 500 with 1Mb HAM plus 1M0 Dnve. TV modulator N*g^t B'eed 
Ttio Beast 2\ Back to tn© Future 2* Days o' Thunde^. Deluxe Pa«nt If 

A500 1MB SCREEN GEMS PACKAGE £ 369.99 

A500 Screen Gems Package PLUS 37>" External Drive (M1 C 41 9.99 




AMIGA 500 CLASS OF THE 90S PACK 



Pack features A500 computer plu* A501 S12K RAM Upgrade. TV MooVaic 
8 sotware BdM 1 D>i»s. moutt m«. Vtdeo Tape & more 

CLASS OF THE 90s Package £ 499.00 

Class of the 90 s Pack plus 3'A" Drive £ 549.00 



AMIGA 1500 STARTER PACK 



Includes AlSOOcompulor (1Mb RAM 2 * 3 /*" D"vev fl •*pant«>n ilott), 

Commodore Hi-Resdution Colour Monitor, pluft So'twu'o including D»luxa 

P«»ni III B«nf« CNi»s S*m City and The Worhs (business software) 



A1500 STARTER PACKAGE 



C 949,00 



VIRUS PROTECTOR 



BANISH VIRUS PROBLEMS! 

Our compact virui Protaclor fltt Mttry to ths Pon ol ih« n«t disk drive In 
your AmJgs tymtxri protecting «|| lnlsrn«l «nd sitsmsl drlVM from boot 
block vtru*#» Incorporate • 
iwRch to sraM* or ^tssbte 
ths protection fsciHty Top 



ONLY £9.95 



REPLACEMENT A500 PSU 




Genuine Commodore Amiga A500 

type replacement Power Supply 

Unit Good quality twitch mode 4 

type* Super low price! 



ONLY £39.95 



MIDI INTERFACE 



Oif hAf com©*** t\*f\ QuaRy MIDI riflacs connects AreOy w«h the Ar «p 
setal pot and prr>«)es in Out a thru ports ic good fl*it>*y Fsjiures LED 
rxicaiors on sacft pon lor 
d»gnost»t purposes Succti 
oonpMtfMgn 



ONLY £19.95 



STEREO SOUND SAMPLER 



Oflenng lull compaiibiiny wlh atmDsi any Amiga audc d^gflisrjr package ouf 
Sound SamcUer teeturss eieeHer* crrcurtry yielding professional resuBs The 
mam AJO converter gives a dtgrttsmg rescJuton ot up to MKHj irrrth a tast sle* 
rate T*o phono sakets are pitied 'c «e<eo ikne *ixh^ D*uS an option for 
mercofene Adjusiatfe g*n « act»*verj *ih bu^.*n comro* kmob Corrc^we 
wlh public domain disk 
Conta*Hng sound sampling 
apptcatcn* jti««s 



ONLY £29.95 



TRACKBALL 




Eice^lenl new hrgh pedormance trackball 

drftctry compfllt)* lo any Amiga or Atan ST 

Operales trom the mouse or pysitctt port 

Sup*K**mooltv accurate and versatUe - 

you probabfy won! want to use a 

mouse agan after usrg this 

TracMbaU i Total one-handed control 

Too Oue*y «netructiOn and opio 

mechanics des^> dtK err g h ^ speed and 

accuracy e»e> irne No drrver software nateded ' 



ONLY £29.95 



NEW.' A500 INTERNAL 3.5" REPLACEMENT DRIVE 
Fully compatible Kit includes full fitting instructions £ 49.95 



Vioi-Amiga video d*gri»$ar package rnc ViDI-Chrome C 110.00 

VTDI-Chrome Arnica co*ou' frame g«nerat*>n k* from B4W trrtaget C 16 SS 
VrOt-flGB colour frame generaton Wtrorn BiWrrr^gM t M95 

«lWGENOemor> Adapter ... C K00 



KCS Powvrboerd HarOware PC Emutator wlh is own 
1Mb ot QAM on-bc*rd Si2K useable n Am«ga mode 
KJckstart i 3 Upgrede J 
Amipe WO Duet Cover 



C7»« 
C 4tS 




NEW WOROWORTM £ H9 00 

K.ndWord,^ €37 95 

Proie*1 V* € 115 M 

D*o*U frlome Accpunli C ?3 S5 

0»iui« Par* J C 79 M 



Uetuii *oeo 3 [«K 

Mu«-X 11 C«00 

AMOS C 37 SO 

MiSofllanceC f iMOO 

GFA BASIC V3 C39» 

GFA BASIC Ccmv*ifM C 34 « 

D*vpac 2 \<> f44« 

Disney An+mjfcii0n Studpo f 69 9S 



NEW! Olivetti DM124C 




24 Pin COLOUR Printer 



tei PROFESSIONAL QUALITY 

24-PIN COLOUR 

" r ^- PRINTING NOW 

AVAILABLE - AT AN 

AFFORDABLE PRICE ! 

Coming tr%e aovarMages oi aovancefl COLOUR ouiput wth me 

supenor quairty o^ Olivetti Professional 2<**pin printing, the new 

DM124C represents excellent value 'or money! Consistent h»gh 

quality ts assured every time, with no ink excesses or paie lines at 

any sDeed Peace Of Mmo tor iroubie-Hee use is Guaranteed, with 

Olivetti's 12 Months On-Site Warranty cover I 

200 cps output mdratt. 50 cps in LO mode, hug0 40K buffer 
7 Colour output. Graphics resolution up to 360 x 180dpi 
Parallel lnlerl*ce Tractor & Single Sheet Feed as standard 
Complete wllh cable A 12 MONTHS ON-SITE WARRANTY 

Olivetti DM124C Normal PRP: £ 389.95 incVAT 



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] /2 Meg internal with clock. 4 chip 
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A 1500/200 PE RIPH ER ALS 

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up to 8 Meg of extra Ram. 

SUPRARAM with OK fitted £84.95 

SUPRARAM with 2Mb fitted £15995 

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56 



PRICES INCLUDE VAT AND POSTAGE TO THE U.K. 

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DESKTOP PUBLISHING 



continued from page 52 

You con select which page number to 
start with, so if you have written a 
book you can print it out with each 
chapter (saved and then loaded os a 
separate document) starting with the 
correct page number. 

Time and date can both be 
inserted into your document header 
or footer, either as the current 
time/date (when the insert command 
was used) or as an updating 
time/date which puts a special 
control string into the text that gets 
replaced with the current time/date 
when the document is printed. British, 
American and European formats for 
time and date are available. 

Editing 

All the editing features you would 
expect from a word processor are 
there - cut, copy, paste, erase, find, 
replace, undo - even a tool called 
Again which repeats the last action 
selected from the Format menu; 
handy for changing the style of 
subheadings throughout a document. 




Line Spacing: 

_; Ao»m 
j Abb Double 

j 6tpt Double 

j 6JpiDcu6Jt 
j Cimom 



Space Before: 

C None 
j Lta*Ko|)< 
j Custom W~ 
j Muted 



CANCEL \ 



Space After: 

'<§ None 

j LtteHttglu 
j Curoro W 
j Mixed 



j Mtod 



f 



Tib* 



Paragraph formatting lies at 
the heart of Wordworth's 
layout system. Each of the 
spells you see here can be cast 
on the whole document, a 
group of paragraphs, or just 
one paragraph. Tabs are set 
directly on the horizontal ruler. 

Blocks are highlighted either by 
dragging the pointer over the desired 
text, or by holding down Ctrl and 
using the arrow keys. Words con be 
highlighted by double clicking on 
them; whole lines can be highlighted 
by triple clicking. 

For those who don't like to take 
their hands from the keyboard while 
editing, there are hotkey shortcuts for 
every menu selection. Changing 
between multiple documents has to 
be done by mouse. 

The numeric keypad can be 
configured so that PgUp, PgDn, 
Home and End do precisely that, or 
you can use the arrow keys in 
conjunction with Alt and Shift. 

One point here. The Amiga 
convention to move to the beginning 
and the end of a line is Shift-left/ right 

arrow (the way Intuition does it in the 
Shell and file requester string gadgets 
for example), but Wordworth uses 



Alt-left/right arrow. The Amiga 
convention to to go to the previous or 
next word is Alt-left/right arrow: 
Wordworth uses Shift-left/right 
arrow. The Amiga convention to 
move up or down a page is Alt- 
up/down arrow, whereas 
Wordworth uses Shift-up/down 
arrow, and so on. 

Most popular Amiga word 
processors stick to accepted 
conventions - Protext, KindWords 
and Scribble! come immediately to 
mind. On the other hand, programs 
such as ProWrite, PenPal, Excellence 
and the HiSoft Devpac/Basic editor 
do it differently. 

It matters not which is the best 
woy to do it. What's important is 
consistency and it bugs me no end 
when Amiga developers ignore 
Commodore's programming 
guidelines and end up copying how 
somebody else has done it. 

Mail merge 

An oft-requested, though little used, 
feature of word processing packages 

is mail merge. 

As well as its 
own built-in mail 
merge format, 
Wordworth can 
import data files 
created with 
Superbase and 
Maiishot Plus. And 
provided you know 
what ASCII 
characters are used to 
separate fields and 
records, any data file 
created by any database program 
can be imported and mail merged 
into a standard letter or document. 
Prodata, for example, is quite 
popular but isn't directly supported. 
However if you Export data from 
Prodata using commas between fields 
(not wrapped in quotes) and carriage 
returns between records, Wordworth 
will import and mail merge the data 
perfectly if you enter 44 as the Field 
Separator (the ASCII code for a 
comma) and 1 3 for Record Separator 
(the ASCII code for carriage return). 
Funnily enough, these are the default 
codes for the Custom data file format. 

But remember to choose ASCII 
from the Format burton in the Merge 
Data File requester because 
Wordworth defaults to its own mail 
merge format, which is basically 
fields separated by tabs and records 
separated by carriage returns. 

And so to bed ... 

Heavens, there's so much to the 
package. Little distractions like the 
screen saver and the word puzzle 
toy. And if you're a teacher or a 
parent with a small child you may be 
interested in the fact that Wordworth 
has a speech facility. There's the 
excellent on-line help requester which 



P Maed 



has cross references to related 
subjects and page numbers in the 
manual. Did I mention that 
Wordworth will do automatic timed 
saves? Handy for hard drive users. 

No expense has been spared on 
the manual. With screenshots, 
diagrams and examples throughout, 
it is split into an instruction book 
(tutorial) and a reference book. A 
troubleshooting section, a 33-page 
glossary (!) and o comprehensively 
cross-referenced index rounds off 
what is one of the best manuals I've 
ever seen. I cannot fault it. 

And I've got to squeeze in the 
fact that future versions will include, 
among other things, PostScript 
support and o Page Preview facility. 

Digita is already talking about 
version two (which is at least a year 
away, maybe longer, so don't hold 
your breath) but 1 can guarantee 
there will be at least one version one 



upgrade, so remember to send in 
your registration card. 

Digita has tagged Wordworth 'a 
writer's dream'. That's just hype, as 
you well recognise, but I'll tell you 
what ... summing up Wordworth in a 
sentence, I would have to say this: 
Wordworth is what every owner of 
KindWords would wish they hod; it is 
basically the KindWords version 3 
they dream about. fT% 

ooooooooo] 

Shopping List 



Wordworth] A.. 



Mnittfffftfft 



£129.95 



by Digita International 
Black Horse House, 
Exmouth EX8 1JL 
« 0395 270273 




Checkout 

Wordworth 1.0 



Ease of use 12/15 

The acid test for this category is to use the 
program without reading the manual. 
Wore/worth posses admirably - its Human 
Interface Protocol (HIP) system is intuitive 
and o pleasure to use Printing options are 
a little complicated and, although covered 
in the manual, it look a phone call to Digita 
to fully understand what was required to 
get the best output. Context-sensitive help is 
available from within the program. 

Speed 7/10 

Screen update keeps up with a fairly fast 
typing speed but scrolling through 
documents is a little tardy, even using the 
standard Topaz font and without graphics 
present Slows down to a frustrating crawl 
in 16-colour hi-res mode, but in four-colour 
med-res the feel is good- Loading and re- 
scaling/display of colour pictures, 
especially HAM, is slow. 

Output 6/ 1 

Digitals UltraPrint system is a brilliant idea 
and raises the quality of Wordworth' s 
output to above average. But future 
versions will need to take full odvantoge of 
the many different proportional fonts 
supplied as standard with modern dot- 
matrix printers, and be able to mix 
graphics on the same page as those fonts, 
before it can be classed as good. 
PostScript and Compugraphic font support 
would seem to be the way to go. 

Graphics 2/5 

Simple positioning and re-scaling options 
for IFFs. No grid to snap to, no duplication 
facility no crop facility If Wordworth is to 
become a great' program, rather than 
better than the competition', more thought 
needs to be put into the facilities offered for 
the manipulation of graphics within 
documents. 



Text editing 9/10 

Get rid of the toolbox and rulers, stick it in 
two-colour mode, and Wordworth feels 
extremely comfortable when bashing out 
words When all the hotkey shorKuts are 
fully mastered you can really get up a good 
head of steam. 

Text formatting 8/ 1 

Contour-flowing around graphics is superb, 
although a vertical standoff distance needs 
to be implemented in future versions. 
Indents and outdents are quickly and easily 
obtained and the ability to create separate 
formats for each paragraph means that 
only the one ruler is needed per document. 
Changes are easily mode, making mucking 
about with the format of a document a fun 
thing to do. 

Tools/Utilities 7/ 1 

The spelling checker and thesaurus are 
nothing out of the ordinary, but perfectly 
adequate. The glossary feature is useful, but 
it would be nice to able to put at least some 
of the phrases on to hotkeys Mail merge is 
flexible and simple to use. Timed auto-save 
automatically overwrites a previously saved 
file of the same name, which could mean 
losing data that you didn't want to lose, this 
needs to be changed. 

Documentation 10/10 

If only all software developers put this much 
thought into their manuals. Digita deserves 
very high praise indeed for taking the time 
to get it right. 

Price Value 18/20 

Some RRP as ProWrite and PenPal. but 
Wordworth is a class above both of these 
in performance and features. It con do 
more than Protext. which is £20 more, and 
it's almost as fast. Pounds-per-feature. no 
other Amiga word processor comes close. 






79/ l 00 



Unless a greatly «nhanced KindWords comes along, which is rather doubtful, I predict 
that Wordworth will become the word processor for the Amiga. 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1 99 1 



GRAPH CS 




"The Amiga is especially goad at 
colour graphics. Let me guide you 
through the maze of products to the 
ones you need, and help you avoid 
expensive mistakes." 

Pn* South 



REAL 3D 



Version 1 .3 of Real 3D 
should be out by the lime 
you read this, and 
although you may think of 
it as being on old product, this is in 
fact a totally revised and more 
powerful version altogether. (And no 
Red Rock jokes, please.) 

Real 3D is simple to use, 
employing the usual three-window 
environment to cover top, front and 
side views of your objects. The tools 
you need are laid out in the fourth 
window, as are descriptions of the 
objects you create and their 
primitives. Objects are selected by 
clicking on their names, and once 
selected can have modifications such 
as extrusion and even rotations 
performed on them with the mouse. 

Objects are created using the 
basic 3D shape primitives - flat 
rectangles, triangles, spheres, cones, 
cylinders and so on - and creating 
more complex shapes is merely a 
process of bolting these basic shapes 
together or deforming them in some 
way. This is much easier to do than 
in most packages of this kind, as you 
can zoom in and out on the shapes 
to get the blending just right. 

Material things 

Once you've created the shape of the 
object, you can attach a 'material' to 
it. A material is a combination of 
colour and texture (or, in this new 
version, a bump map too). For 
example the teapot in one of the most 
impressive demo pictures is a shiny 
gold colour, and the surface texture is 
an irregular bump map which 

simulates beaten metal. The way the 
surface reflects light is alterable via 
the Modify Material menu item, 
which enables you to set the 
brightness, transparency and 
'specularity' of an object. The 
specularity gives you the 'hardness' 

of the object, and the brightness tells 
you how brightly it reflects. Hardness 
gives you either a sharp or fuzzy 





We've a Special Real Issue this 
month, as our Graphics Ed Phil 
South delves into the realms of 
Real 3D and Real Things. Is this 
virtual reality on a plate ? 



outline to the bright highlights you get 
on an object, and this is linked to the 
reflectivity of the object. 

Your textures and bump maps 
are created from standard IFF files, 
as you would save out from 
DeluxePaint or a similar program, 
and materials are easy to create from 
your own files. 

Once you've created the objects 
and put them together in the positions 
and rotations you want, you have a 
very slick way of setting your 
viewpoint with the wireframe section 
of the program. Simply rotate and 



zoom in and out using the sliders, 
and click on the REC button to set 
that position. Returning to the Editor, 
you will find that an observer and 
aim point have been set for you. 
Once you've positioned your 
lights for the right effect, you move on 
to the solid modelling port of the 
program. The modeller has a series 
of burtons that you push to create the 
full render of the frame you've 
created. But before you push the big 
button to commit yourself, you can 
choose to outolight the thing and do 
a fast render without any textures or 






lighting effects - giving you a quick 
pencil test, as it were, of what you've 
created. If you're happy with that, 
you can do a conventional trace to 
check textures and reflections, and 
finally a full HAM trace - or you can 
even render directly to a Targo or 
other 24-bit board. 

Making things move 

Animations are similarly easy to 
accomplish in Real 3D, as there ore 
loads of automatic systems built in to 
handle animation. For instance, set 
points in a path around the objects 
can be recorded for the camera, and 
the computer will in-between or 
'tween' them. On the other hand, 
each frame can be set individually 
using the wire frame editor. Either 
way, once you set the thing in motion 
it will render each frame and save it 
to disk. After setting the animation to 
render, you can leave the machine to 
get on with it and go down the pub 
or to bed - as with all rendering 
programs, Real 3D takes some time. 
When you get up or roll back from 
the boozer, you should find the 
animation on your disk, ready for 
you to play. 

One feature which I've never 
seen anywhere else is the ability to 
animate bump maps. All you do is 
create a series of bump maps with 
the same name and a number on the 
end, like "watery 1", "watery2"... 
"watery " and so on, and the 
program will read those bump mops 
and apply them to your objects for 
each different frame of the animation. 



Real 3D makes producing complex rendered images a simple process. And 
its ease of use means that, unlike some other programs, it's fun to use, too! 




JARGO 
BUSTING 

NTSC: The American and Japantte 
video and TV standard. Stands for 
National Televtiion Standards 
Committee, and not "Never Twice 
the Same Colour" as some wags 
would have you believe. 

PAL The European TV standard- 
Stands for Phase Alternating Line. 



58 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE A • AUGUST 1 99 1 



GRAPHICS 



A pro system 

The direct support for 24-bit cards 
(and the Targa too, if you have a PC 
side to your system) me«ns that Real 
3D is a real pro system, and the 
features and ease of use make it 
stand out above the mass of other, 
harder to use applications. Gary 
would disagree I know, being a 
Turbo Silver fan, but I find Real 3D 
easier to handle even than Imagine 
(reviewed by Dr Gaz this issue). 

Obviously the speed of 
redrawing the screen goes down 

when more and complex objects are 
being created on the system, but 
that's when an accelerator card 
becomes invaluable. 



Checkout 

Real 3D 



Ease of use ..15/15 

The easiest 3D rendering package I've 
ever used, with some very nice 
quick'n'dirty fast tendering routines lo 
try out stuff before you do a full trace 

Speed 9/10 

Even wt*h everything turned up full, Real 
3D outpaces the slower more 
conventional packages by a factor of 
about 3;1. 

Output 9/ 1 

Full trace pictures can be output as 
normal HAM images or as 24-bit Targa 
or 24-bit IFF images. 

Graphics handling ....9/ 10 

Accepts IFF images as both 
texture/colour or bumpmap images, and 
so is very flexible. 

Colour 9/10 

Can assign any colour you like to the 
shapes you create, and perform* 
exceptional shading on the base 
colours, especially in 24-bit. 

Text editing 4/5 

No text editing to speak of, although the 
program hos some fonts for you to 
render up to add text effects to you 
pictures. You can also import text as IFF 
files. 

Tools 8/ 1 

Tools are available as menu selections 
or as buttons on the screen, giving you 
two ways of working depending on your 
preference. 

Documentation 9/10 

Nice thick manual which covers all 
aspects of the program, although it is so 
easy to guess what everything does you 
rarely have to resort to reading it. 

Price Value 15/20 

Has all the features of a professional 
package for a professional price. 




Using Real 3D with an 
accelerator card (see the last issue of 
Amiga Shopper for our accelerators 
special) is very nice and convenient 
with normal HAM mode and dam 
near essential if you're running 24- 
bit. Accelerators you should check 
out are the GVP 3001 (for the very 
rich), and the HARMS 030 
Professional, SSL B5000 and CSA 
Mega Midget Racer for the poorer 
folks among us. 

continued on page 60 



Things like 

how much an 

object reflects 

the light and 

what texture it 

should appear 

to have are all 

easily set 

from Real 

30"s menus. 

so images like 

this are easy 

to create. 




Graphics 




EWS 



Real 3D is one of the most enjoyable 
programs I've ever hod to review. The 
bump mapping is the most fun you'll 
ever have without actually producing 
anything. 



There ore some pieces of equipment which cross the 
boundaries of what is graphics and what is video, as 
Gary W and I find out every month. One thing which 
looks like fuelling both of our moist daydreams over the 
next year is the NewTek Video Toaster. Although a 
European TV standard (PAL) version is said to be "some 
way off" as yet, the American TV (NTSC) version Video 
Toaster from NewTek is still making waves. After the 
success of the Toaster at the MacWorld Expo (yes, 
that's MacWorld) where the product was said to be the 
best seen at the show (ho ho), Newtek has announced 
that it is to market a stand-alone Video Toaster. (You 
may like to know mat according to NewTek co-founder 
Paul Montgomery, the device was called a Toaster 
rather than XYZ3000 or something, because "It's an 
appliance and everyone should have one.") 

The Toaster functions as a framestore, switcher, 
titler, and digital video effects (DVE) generator, and is 
available as a card for Amiga 2000/3000 computers 
for $1,595, or as a stand-alone system for $3,995. The 
product features a four-input video switcher which can 
perform cuts, fades and wipes among any of seven 
sources including four video inputs. It also includes a 
digital video effects generator, a three-dimensional 
animation package called LightWave, a character 
generator, a paint program, two frame buffers, a colour 
processing engine called ChromaFX and a frame 
grabber and storer. 

The Toaster has been getting some extraordinary 
write-ups in magazines not usually into reviewing 
computer products. Rolling Stone, Videography, The 
Financial Post, The Hollywood Reporter and Esquire 
have all carried stories on the Toaster in the last two 
months, not to mention the rave reviews the machine 
has gleaned from computer magazines and other 
computer firms. Apple uses them to drive its audiovisual 
presentations and, as I said before, MacWorld 
magazine is quoted as saying that the Toaster was "our 
favourite product of the MacWorld Expo," which is 
high praise indeed from a magazine dedicated to a 
rival computer. And as I may have told you Todd 
Rungren, Mac enthusiast and aging hippy songster, has 
bought 64,000 bucks-worth of Amigas and Toasters to 
make his videos with. 

The new stand-alone Toaster looks uncannily like a 
Commodore Amiga 2000, and in fact a closer glance 
tells you that it is precisely that, the difference being that 
you buy the whole system ready set up for broadcast 
TV. Later versions of the VT hardware will be housed in 
a smaller, all black purpose-built box, which is currently 
being designed and made as we speak. What you get 
for your $4,000 is an Amiga 2000, 5Mb of RAM, a 



single 3.5-inch internal floppy drive and a 52Mb SCSI 
hard disk drive and controller. The two composite and 
single RGB monitors you need to get going are supplied 
by the user. Also, the signal you have to feed to the 
Toaster must be fed through a Time Base Corrector - 
you can have this supplied with your Toaster for an 
extra $995! If you want to do animation with the 
excellent 24-bit rendering software, you need to have 
some means of laying the frames down one by one. 

Although, all things considered, this may not seem 
like a good deal, bear in mind that although the Toaster 
is supposed to be TV production for everyone, it is in 
fact only for everyone who has access to: 

• NTSC video equipment 

• A Time Base Corrector 

• A handful of monitors 

• A pair of U-Matic video recorders 

This may sound like a big cheat, but remember that it's 
all relative. As Gary W would tell you at the drop of a 
hat, video production isn't cheap, and without the 
Toaster you are talking about 100,000-odd dollars- 
worth of equipment before you even begin adding the 
tape recorders, TBCs and so on. Digital video effects 
are not cheap, and neither are all me other things that 
the Toaster bundles into one Amiga slot. And so as long 
as you desk is big enough for a couple of U-Matic 
mochines. TBC, a couple of composite reference 
monitors and an Amiga, this is true Desktop Video! 
Compared with the competition, it really is cheap. 

Of course, the big rub is that the PAL version is 
"nowhere near finished": even though we know that at 
under £1 ,500 the thing would sell in the thousands, 
NewTek doesn't. Although the machine currently works 
only on American standard NTSC composite monitors 
and TV, a PAL version of the machine has been "in the 
works" for about the last year. When I spoke to 
NewTek recently, the company said that it is reluctant to 
name a date for a PAL release. I suspect that work on 
the PAL version hasn't even begun, until the size of the 
UK market for the machine con be assessed. NewTek 
awaits news of what the Brits want from a UK Toaster. 
The thing of it is that NewTek doesn't know what we 
want. Even if we want it at all. 

So, I guess it's up to us to tell them. Interested 
parties who want to show the size of the UK Toaster 
market by jamming NewTek's switchboard, or who just 
want more information about the thing, can get in touch 
with the company on 010 1 913 354 1146. 

If you can't wait to get your hands on a Toaster, 
don't fret. Gary Whiteley and I will be doing a special 
review/preview of the NTSC version of the machine 
exclusively for Amiga Shopper in the very near future. 
Hold on to your hats. 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1 99 1 



J 



GRAPHICS 



continued from page 59 



REAL THINGS 



When the Real Things 
range first came out 
about a year ago, it 
was hard to figure out 
what the purpose of supplying 
animated versions of birds in flight or 
animals walking and running was. 
But gradually is becomes clear, as 
the range grows, that the concept of 
clip art can be extended to animation 
and even 3D to good effect. 

Correctly animating an object is 
hard enough, and if that object is a 
living, breathing animal then the task 
in hand becomes several orders of 
magnitude more difficult. So having 
an expert artist or animator to create 
an animation for you to base your 
work around is rather a good one, if 
you look at the idea like that 

There is a lot of scope for the 
ideo of amplifying human potential. 



Robin Billson of RGB Studios is 
landscape painter, and he agrees 
with this idea. He started by drawing 
some horses from a book he had 
when he was a child. The idea was 
to add something to DPaint III, as on 
its own it is a little "content free". The 
idea was to give people a bit of 
content, so that they can grow from 
there with ideas of their own. 

The Real Things series covers 
horses, birds, and now humans - life 
studies in various stages of 
movement. The files are stored on the 
disks as animated brushes for use in 
any graphics program which 
supports them. Although the animal 
work is highly original, I think that the 
human animations are drawn from 
the work of the early British motion 
photographer Eadweard Muybridge. 
(You may have seen films made from 
his prints in documentaries about 
early filmmaking.) There is nothing 
wrong with that, as the sequences 



are excellent - nothing like it has 
been done since, and besides all that 
I imagine that Muybridge's copyright 
has long since expired, since he 
made the film in 1904. 

The Real Things range covers a 
lot of ground from education, fun and 
study, right through to the creation of 
graphics for multimedia and video. 
Something for everyone, in fact, and 
finally here we have the real point of 
it all: Real Things are a creative 
experience that everyone can enjoy. 
Real living things that can move on 
your screen, and that you can point 
into your own animations. To use an 
analogy, it's like those "play along" 
records - they get you started in a 
simple and easy way, yet the result is 
better than the sum of the parts you 
put into it. You always get something 
more out of it. Sounds crazy, but it's 
true. There will be a new Real Things 
product out for the autumn, and I for 
one am looking forward to it. 



Really Smart Tips For Real 3D 



There are lots of hints and tips which can be 
given for Real 30, besides the usual 'get more 
memory and a fast chip' routine. Creating 
your own bump maps and textures, for 
example, is a very subtle business, as is 
lighting. But the beauty of the program is that 
it really is not that difficult to do. 

The bump map on the right is called Philmap. It is an IFF 
brush, in a shade of red as it happens (although you won't 
be able to see that). The brush was made by writing my 
name using the magnify mode and grabbing it as a brush. 
The brush was then stamped all over the screen, and a 
rectangle was saved out as a brush, in the same way that 
you create a texture for DPaint. Save the brush to the 
'Bumpmaps' directory on the disk and you're ready to go. 



Creating your own bump maps is a piece 
of cake. Simply create a brush using DPaint, 
and save it to disk. The beauty of the system 
is that you can create disks of materials which 
are your very own - materials which you can 
use for your own objects, but which any other 
person can't. How's that for exclusive? 





Next, you choose the Modify Material menu item 
and select your new bump map from the 
requester. Once the material has been modified, 
click on your shape and select 
Hierarchy/material. Then choose your new 
material. The shortcut key stroke is the letter b, 
which pops up the requester just as if you'd 
selected it from the menu. 



And there you have it, a wooden ball (right). The colour is selected using a similar 
process to altering the material, by selecting Hierarchy/colour from the menu, or 
by typing a letter f from the keyboard. The texture of the ball is selected by 
modifying the material in the material /modify requester. 





To show what a difference a colour 

and a bump map can make, here's 

the same ball from pretty much the 

same angle, but with a different 

material and a wooden backdrop to 

reflect light at the ball (left). Note that 

if you show a mirrored or glass 

surface, you have to add something for it 

to reflect or you get a blank screen! Simply 

select hierarchy/material, choose a new colour 

(one of the defaults or one you've created) and the object is altered. When you 

render it, the colour and texture are changed, but everything else like lighting 

and position remains the same. The bump map is the Philmap brush I created 

first, and the colour and reflectivity have been changed. 



Oh, and incidentally, don't forget the 
super Real Things animation 
demonstration which you receive as 
part of the free demos disk which 
comes with your subscription to 
Amiga Shopper. The disk features a 
special tutorial on how to create a 
butterfly, which takes you through the 
process of creating animations in a 
step-by-step way. QJ 

OOCJOOOOOOj 

Shopping List 

Real 3D version 1.3 

Beginners' version £120.85 (+VAT) 

Pro and Turbo versions ...1348.19 (+VAT) 

Available from Alternative Image 
6 Lothair Road 

Aylstone 
Leicester 
LE27BQ 
« 0533 440041 

Real Things 

Humons £29.95 

Birds land 2 £29.95 

1 lUl >VJ Hlltll* til t*ftt«*tlftlt4lt4l»tX& 4 T 7 J 



Available from RGB Studios 

Gobies 

Buxted 

East Sussex 

TN224PP 

» 0825 812666 

or 0825 813592 



V 



ECKOUT 

Real Things 



Ease of use 20/25 

The files are simplicity itself to employ. 
Just paste them into your animations as 
anim brushes. 

Colour 8/ 1 

Good use of colour, and appropriate to 
the subject matter. Particularly 
impressive was the skin tone colour, 
which is one of the best I've seen. 

Documentation 5/10 

Very little in the way of docs is required 
to use the files, and so the 
documentation is limited in scope, 
although lots of hints and tips are 
supplied with each pock. 

Artistic value 30/30 

Very cleverly done, and adds a real 
spark of realism to your animations - or 
even games, if that's your leaning. 

Price value 23/25 

Good value for money here, as the files 
add a lot to your graphics. They are a 
sort of four-dimensional clip aril 




A fine body of work, and growing every 
day as RGB Studios pumps out still more 
animated real things for you to enjoy 
An excellent idea, well executed. 



60 



AMICA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1991 




a writer's dream 



The graphical nature of Wordworth^ makes producing 
documents faster and easier. The WYSIWYG display shows 
exactly how your printed document will look, different fonts, 
styles and sizes, headers and footers, graphics and so on. 

Commands are grouped under a series of pull down 
menus, accessible either by the 
mouse or keyboard. Frequently used 
commands have on-screen icons. 
including Help, should you need it. 

Experience the look and feel of 
the new and exciting WB2 (even if 
you use WB 1.3). 



Wordworth 



lAh * H -t * I 



if 

A3 



II 




Digita's® innovative Human 
Interface Protocol® is incorporated and sets new standards in 
speed, style and elegance. Each document is a separate multi- 
tasking window, which means you could for example, print 
one while editing another. 

Graphics have always been the Amiga's strong point. 
Now it's better than ever. Pictures from Deluxe Paint can be 
placed in a document, and then sized, scaled and dragged 
(text automatically reformats around 
the image). 

Wordworth's enhanced fonts wi 
give you the very best printed 
quality. You can also print special 
symbols, such as boxes, arrows and 
so on. Better still you can mix 
graphics, Wordworth's enhanced 
fonts, Amiga fonts. Colorfonts and your printer . own lonts, 
all on the same page. 

Wordworth integrates with most word processors, and so 
you'll be able to use .my documents created with Kindwords, 
Wordperfect. Prowrite. Protext, Excellence, and any ASCII or 
IFF Text document. 

As Amiga Computing put it. "the only Amiga word 
processor to rival Protext for speed. I would recommend the 
program to anyone thinking of buying their first 
word processor or upgrading from Kindwords." 



Altt ihcl 






Pi * 

r *- 



r »- 




Wordworth is written in the UK by Digita. Which 
mean', you'll be using an English Collins spelling checker 
and thesaurus, and you'll know where to come for 

professional support. 

When Amiga Format said "a 
new word processor that will 
give the resl of the world a run 
for its money" they weren't 
joking. "Wordworth is the most 
user Friendly word publisher on 

the Amiga/' Praise indeed. 

I he ->nly way to really appreciate >rdworth is to use 
it. Phone 0395 270273 for more information or, write to 

Digita. FREEP( ^ST, Exmouth EX* 2YZ. 

WordworrJ its £129.99. which includes VAT, postage 
and packing. If you already own a word processor and 
purchase Wordworth direct from Digita, you can save £30 
by returning your original disks with your order. 

Wordworth will be your writer's dream. 
However, il you don't agree with 
us (and purchased directly from 
Dig return it in original 
condition within 7 days and we 
ill refund s - >ui mone 




rt 

toiiga 
Fully iandV2.00 

- .ill medium or high 

olutfon modtfl (mono and i olour 
Require [MB of memory 











&DIGITA 

INTERNATIONAL 



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A mernhrt of the £>*iU *n*4> * 
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^iatU4i#y> tr.i 




Did you miss 
these Issues? 

Then here's your chance to grab them whilst they're still 
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Use the form opposite to place your order. 



•'» '•., 



If you wish, you can purchase 

demo disks 1 and 2 separately for 

just £1.75 each. 

Use the order form opposite and please 

make sure you indicate which demo disks you 

require. 

£^|A STILL AVAILABLE - DEMO DISK ONE for El. 75. Contains 

' demos of AMOS from Mandarin - the programming language that 
^^^^^ took the Amiga world by storm. Devpac 2 from HiSoft - the 
^^^^ assembler that's used by the professionals, RealThmgs from RGB 
Studios - it brings things to life in Deluxe Paint III and lets you design, build and 
fly your own butterfly. 



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When you subscribe to Amiga Shopper you not only get 12 issues of the most 
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containing demos of new software to help you make your buying decisions. 
This brand new disk contains superb demos of Wordworth, Sequencer One and 
3D Construction Kit 

WORDWORTH This brand new word processor from Digrta International is described by them 
as 'a writers dream' and you'll be able to see it it is for yourself with this demo. You will also get 
a voucher enabling you to buy Wordworth for just £99.95 - that's a saving of £30 on its normal 
price! 

SEQUENCER ONE In issue 2 of Amiga Shopper we said of this new sequencing program from 
Gajits Music Software "it has to be the budget pnced sequencing software for the Amiga." Why 
not find out for yourself and take advantage of our special voucher offer to obtain a free disk of 
exciting new samples for use with Sequencer One? 

3D CONSTRUCTION KIT If you've ever wanted to create your own 3-dimensional worlds then 
now is your chance with Domark/lncentive's brand new game creation program. It allows you to 
use Incentive's famous Freescape programming system to create your own stunning 3D games 
- without a scrap of programming knowledge. Don't be fooled though, this is a utility that will 
great programming power at your fingertips. 



YES, YES, YES! I wish to become a subscriber to AMIGA SHOPPER. Please send me the next 1 2 issues and the special sampler disk No. 2. 



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Introducing 
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to the UK... 

Saxon Publisher provides you with performance Draw 4D is the first Multi Dimensional Structured Drawing 

unparalleled by other DTP programs, with features so . t /~* and animation software for Desktop Publishing and Video, 

powerful and flexible that even the most complex Cl/ r t7\X/T'\T/^' T ' ie interface is the fastest, smoothest and easiest to use 



documents can be created in a fraction of the 
rime. A program that incorporates numerous 
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anywhere else • at any price. Saxon Publisher 
will change your perceptions about what a truly 
professional DTP program should be... 

The DTP Standard for the Amiga 

& Text sizes up to 2000 points 

& Import text from any Amiga WP 

& Rotate, Scale and Skew text in any direction 

& The abiliry to import and print 24 bit images 

without converrions utilities 
& Support lor Encapsulated PostScript 



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& Zoom range is nearly unlimited 

DRAW 4D is fully multitasking 








PICTURE DISTORTION 

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VIDEO 





Gary Whiteley shouts "action 
with Impulse's latest 3D 

animation package, Imagine 



// 




acked with functions, 
Imagine is the new 3D 
modelling and animation 
package from Impulse - a 
company which some of you will 
remember as the creators of Silver 
and its subsequent offspring, the 
Turbo Silver series. I was an 
enthusiastic explorer of Silver. It 
seemed to offer the potential to do 
things that other 3D packages just 
weren't capable of al the time. It was 
hard going, but things slowly 
improved through Turbo Silver up to 
Turbo Silver 3SV (which was really 
pretty hot - at least in terms of 
innovations). 

However, the learning curve of 
the Silver series was steep, and the 
modellers were difficult to use. I often 
found that I'd use Sculpt 3D to 
actually build the objects, convert 
them using Interchange, and then 
load them into Turbo Silver and set 
up my scenes from there. Why? 
Well, I liked the things you could do 
with Turbo Silver - such as texturing 
and wrapping brushes on to objects. 
And it had flexibility in setting the 
characteristics of objects in a scene.- 
for instance, you could make green 
glass and actually have it behave like 
green glass! But let me tell you, there 
were limes when I just could not 
figure some things out. These Impulse 
people sure had some quirky ways of 
doing things: like, when everyone 
else has the Y axis of the world 
running vertically and the Z axis 
running into the 'distance', good ol' 
Impulse had to have Z where Y 
should be, and vice versa. And it still 
doesl But al least the products were 
continuously improved, upgraded 
and debugged. And their newsletter 

was fun too. 

Leader of the pack 

Well, now Impulse is back. Imagine 

is far in advance of any of the Silver 
programs, and in competition with 

similar products such as Sculpt 
Animate 4D and Real 3D (Turbo Pro 
Version). It is definitely up there with 
the leaders. 

Many of Imagine'* features ore 
actually improved versions of those 
seen in TS3. But there are now 
several more modules to select and 



use. Where TS3 only had a modeller 
and a renderer. Imagine has a Cycle 
Editor, a Forms Editor and a Stage 
Editor, as well as the Detail Editor 
(similar to TS3'i modeller) and the 
Project Editor {from where all 
rendering takes place). There is also 
another editor inside the Stage 
Editor: the Action Editor, where your 
3D thespians can be choreographed 
and lit and the camera crew given 
their instructions. 

Many refinements have also been 
made to the program Imagine has 
built-in effects such as Ripple and 
Explode, it features Boolean 
operations, will take an IFF picture 
and turn it into an object, can have 
up to 32,000 lights simultaneously on 
screen (though I think this is going lo 
be purely academic to most peoplel), 
is able to generate 24-bit images and 
can produce ordinary AN1M movies, 
as well as Impulse's proprietary 
RGBN format files. And that's just 
scratching the surface! 

There's no way that I can 
possibly describe all the features of 
Imagine in this limited space. What I 
will do instead is take you through 
the various modules, mentioning their 
functions and features as I go. 

Getting started 

The whole Imagine package comes 
on just one disk, which contains two 
versions of the program - the FP for 
those with fast processors (eg 
68020/30 boards) and another for 
those without. There are also two 
drawers, containing Imagine'^ 
Textures and the Effects. 

I opted for the FP version, being 
me proud owner of a new 68030 
board, but the non-turbo version 
works identically - if at a rather more 
leisurely pace. 

As there ore no demo files to 
load, you have to start from scratch, 
selecting 'Start a new project'. Next, 
you are presented with the Project 
Menu, where you set up a 
'SubProject' or two, in order to 
render your creations. Different 
SubProjects allow you to easily 
render files in your preferred 
resolution, size and format - 
enabling you to get good 
approximations of what your final 



"Videos don't make themselves - they 
need actors, technicians and equipment. 
With a 3D animation package, you 
create the actors and use the program's 
built-in equipment. So, you're the 
technician, and all you have to do is 
imagine... But don't worry if this all 
sounds daunting - I'm here to direct." 

Gary Whiteley 




work will look like before committing 
your Amiga to the inevitably slow 
crunching associated with 3D (and 
especially ray-traced) work. 

Incidentally, the choice of 
rendering formats is really pretty 
comprehensive. You can choose from 
24 bit (Impulse's own RGB8 format 
or the more transportable ILBM-24), 
1 2-bit (RGBN format or ILBM HAM) 
or separated RGB files. You can also 
determine whether you want to use 
interlace or hires (in which case you'll 
only get 16 colours), whether to use 



ANIM or Imagines own animation 
format, and a choice of black and 
white or colour (wire-frame or 
shaded), scanline or full ray-trace 
rendering. In addition lo this, you can 
also determine the size of the picture 
in pixels (up to 8,000 x 8,000) and 
its aspect ratio. However, pictures 
larger than the normal Amiga 
resolutions must be output to 
specialist equipment such as a film 
recorder. Firecracker 24, Impulse's 
24 bit board, is also directly 
supported. 

continued on page 66 

Here we have both a Quad view... 




...and an Interlaced HAM rendering of an F14 flying away trom the Earth. 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 •AUGUST 1991 



65 



V I PEO 











Front view of a skeletal figure used as 
a template for a cycle object. 

(onlinued from poqe 65 

tf you change your mind oboul the 
format at any stage, your Subproject 
parameters can be modified at will 
when in the Project Editor module. 

Playing at God 

Since the object of the exercise is to 
make some kind of 3D world, and 
render it for others to marvel at, we 
have to do some construction at some 
point. One way in which Imagine 
allows the user to do this is with the 
Detail Editor, in which objects can be 
built up from simple 'primitives' such 
as spheres, planes, tubes or cones. 
However, this is far too restrictive for 
complicated items, so Imagine also 
allows objects to be built from points 
and faces, or by manipulating 
primitives or other objects which 
have been built. 

Of course, you could always 
import objects from other 3D 
packages (if you can convert them to 
the right format), and previous users 
of Turbo Silver 3 will be happy to 
hear that their old objects can be 
recycled by loading them directly into 

Imagine. 

The Detail Editor has a 'Quad 
View' (Top, Front, Right and 
Perspective views), with optional grid 
for accurate drawing. Each window 
can be brought to full screen size and 
quickly changed to another view. In 
the Perspective window, objects can 
be represented as wire frame, solid 
(which is wire frame with all hidden 




The Quad view shows the same 
information, but in four views... 




...and this grab shows the Quad 
view with the animation controller 

lines removed) or as a greyscale 
coloured image (termed 'shaded'). 
Of course, constructing objects 
isn't as easy as it sounds - things 
never are. To build an object other 
than o primitive, the sequence goes 
something like this: first, add an axis 
(all objects have their own axis), then 
add some lines. Then join up the 
surface in triangular faces. And then? 
Well, this is where you really have to 
start to think, as there is often more 
than one way to produce your 
chosen object. For instance, you may 
think that making a hollow box (with 
sides which actually have a thickness) 
is easy. And it can be - if you follow 
the right sequence. And this is the 
point with Imagine: it requires 
imagination. A hollow box can be 
mode in several ways; how about 
making all the sides separately and 
then glueing them all together? Or 
how about extruding a cross-section 
and then adding the base? Or what 
about Boolean operations? With 
Imagine, you could put one box 
inside another and then click on 
Slice. Then, removing the unwanted 
ports would leave you with the 
required, hollowed-out box. Slice 
could also be used to 'drill' holes in 
wood or put faces on flat objects. 

For easy building of objects such 
as bottles or glasses which, in the 
reol world, could hove been 
produced on a lathe, the Sweep 
command can be used to rotate a 
cross-section of on object around an 



axis. Objects can also be Extruded, 
Spun, Replicated (that is, multiplied 
on to themselves) or Conformed to 
either sphere or cylinder - for 
example, an object which takes the 
form of a world map can be 
accurately given a spherical form. 

Imagine also has a 'magnetism' 
feature, which allows selected points 
to be pushed and pulled according to 
predetermined forces and directions. 
This feature has many uses, including 
making a flat plane into a landscape, 
distorting objects into smooth curves 
and so on. 

Choosing individual points or 
groups of points is simple. By 
selecting either Click (for single 
points), Losso (for drawing a 'rubber- 
band' line around the points you 
wish to select) or Drag Box (where 
your points are selected by dragging 
a box out around them), you can 
grab the points of your choice and 
then move them around to your 
heart's desire. 

Objects and their axes can be 
scaled, rotated and sized at any 
time. Several objects may be 
grouped together so that they stick to 
one common axis, or they may be 
permanently joined. Complex objects 
may also be split apart into simpler 
ones. Objects may be cut, pasted, 
copied or deleted at will. 

Attributing Attributes 

Once an object has been created, its 
Attributes can be set. These include 
colour, hardness, shininess, 
reflectivity, filter (to determine how 
much light of a selected colour con 
pass through the object), Index of 
Refraction (to simulate the light 
bending properties of water, glass, 
and so on), and whether the object 
acts as a light source. Up to four 
textures (ten are currently available, 
including checks, grid, camouflage 
and wood) and up to four IFF brushes 
(made in Deluxe Paint III, for 
example) can be simultaneously 
mapped on to any object. You could, 
for instance, have a map of the world 
mapped on to a sphere, and then 



also texture the resulting globe with 
grid lines. And certain types of 
brushes affect the object in different 
ways: a greyscale brush can be used 
to add simulated 'bumpiness' to a 
surface (known as Altitude Mapping), 
while stained glass effects can be 
achieved by wrapping a brush as a 
Filter Map, which causes light to be 
selectively filtered through the object. 
Reflection Mopping is also possible, 
where the different colours of the 
brush reflect their corresponding 
light. And if you want to be really 
clever, you can have Imagine 
sequentially map your four chosen 
brushes on to an object in successive 
frames. So now you can actually play 
pictures on your model TV setl But I 
must worn you - wrapping brushes is 
not always as easy as it ought to be. 
In fact, it sometimes seems almost 
impossible to do even the simplest 
things with Imagine. 

All the world's 

Leaving the Detail Editor for now, we 
progress on to the Stage Editor, 
where we assemble our players. 

As you will see from the 
illustrations, all the editing screens in 
Imagine (except those for Project and 
Action) are based upon the Quod 
view, and many features - such os 
Scale, Rotate, Move and Pick points 
- are common to each, making the 
program much easier to learn. 

The Stage Editor is where we 
bring our objects, lights and camera 
together in order that we can ploy 
God ond tell them oil what to do in 
the world that we have created. 
There are two parts to this editor; the 
Quad View, where we see our 
objects, lights and so on represented 
graphically, and the Action Editor, 
where our Actors (as Imagine calls 
our objects, lights and so on) can be 
choreographed in a more direct 
visual and numerical script format. 

The Quad view is fine for quick 
manipulations ond basic positioning 
of objects and you can do most of 
the things in the Quad view that you 

coatVNwd on pog« 69 



JARGO 




BUSTING 



24 WT( 



ANIM; 



An image made up of 24 bit plane. Because each bit plane ha* two 
colours, the resulting image is composed of 2 raised to the power 
24 * that is, 16,777,216 - different colours. 



A method of storing animation frames developed by Spartafilm, 
whereby only the changes between successive frames are stored, thus 
saving significant amounts of space, 

BOOK AN OPERATORS: Ask your dod (even if you ore one). Or look it up in a 

dictionary like I did. In this context it applies to using one 3D object to 
cut holes in another; the actual appearance of the cuts are defined in 
terms of mathematical expressions. 

Hold and Modify is an Amiga graphic mode which allows all 4,096 
colours to be displayed at once, with certain restrictions. 

Interchange File Format is a means by which data from different 
graphics or sound sampling programs is saved in a compatible way. 

The method by which pictures or textures are 'draped' over the 
surface of 3D objects* 

A tot of pre -constructed objects, such as cones, tubes and spheres 
which can, by manipulation, be used to moke more complex objects* 



HAM; 



IFF: 



MAPPING: 



PRIMITTVIS: 



M 



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ppiiiiipiiianHHB^BBimHnpHH 



VIDEO 



continued from page 66 

can do in the Action Editor. You 
could load objects created in the 
Detail Editor, manipulate them (using 
interactive functions like Scale, Move 
and Rotate) until they are as you 
wish, add lighting, and position and 
orientate the camera until you are 
happy with your scene. But so far we 
only have one frame prepared for 
rendering. What if we actually want 
to do more than this and make some 
moving pictures? 

You've guessed itl Off we go to 
the Action Editor. This is where the 

business of creating the animation 
really starts moving. The Action Editor 
is used to define the number of 
frames in an animation, at what 
stage of this animation an Actor 
appears (or disappears), where the 
camera is pointing at a given time (it 
could be static, could follow a 
prepared path or could track a 
chosen Actor), and what kind of 
lighting we want (there are several 
varieties - spherical, conical or 
cylindrical - which each have their 
own characteristics such as colour 
and size) 

As you probably realise by now, 
Imagine is a comprehensively 
featured package. But keep reading; 
there's a lot more to come. 

Global settings allow the user to 
determine the ambient light qualities 
(that is, the 'general' background 
lighting), the sky and ground colours, 
and also to automatically add 
random starfields (should they be 
required!). 

Bear in mind that each frame of 
an animation can have different 
globals, lighting, camera positions 
and objects, and that lights, objects 
and globals can all be transitioned 
across several frames, and you'll 
understand why this program is 
called Imagine... 

Effective Explosions 

It is in the Action Editor that we find 
what is perhaps the most innovative 



feature of Imagine - the Effects (or 
F/X as they are called in the Action 
Editor). There are currently four 
effects supplied: Ripple, Grow, Rotate 
and Explode. No prizes for guessing 
what these little babies do, and they 
certainly do it well. For instance, the 
exploding head (see illustrations 
below) was done quite simply by 
telling the Head actor that it would 
explode into its component parts 
(with each keeping their individual 
surface characteristics) over a user- 
determined period of frames. To give 
more flexibility, each effect has a 
series of options which allow you to 
tailor that effect to your needs. 

For example, the Ripple effect 
can have the size and number of 
ripples set by the user, who can also 
decide whether they are radial (like 
those produced by dropping a stone 
in a pool) or linear (like ocean 
waves) and how far they travel. And 
these effects will work on many 
objects. I tried rippling a sphere and 
an F14 plane, as well as more 
normal models. A rippled F14 
certainly looks odd! Explode can also 
be run backwards, so that you could 
'build' an object from its parts. Grow 
and Rotate are self-explonatory (and 
Grow can also be used to Shrink). 
The inclusion of these effects is very 
welcome, as they bring previously 
yearned for (and almost impossible to 
create) effects wilhin the reach of the 
Amiga user. 

Once you've set the stage, you 
save the changes and then, if you're 
sensible, you do a wire frame 
preview in order to check that the 
action is how you want it to be. This 
is easy to do: select Make from the 
Animate menu, set up the range of 
frames which you wish to preview 
and the stepping between frames (so 
that you can get an idea of the 
motion without having to make a 
preview of every frame). Press 
[Return), and then wait a while - but 
keep your eyes on the screen, as 
each frame for previewing is shown 




This is the Quad view with the 
Attributes requester shown, which 
is used to set the surface 
characteristics of a selected object. 





A full screen, Perspective view, 
with the shading function active. 

in all windows of the Quad view, 
which means that you can easily 
pinpoint any mistakes. When 
completed, you can play the preview 
animation back, adjusting its speed 
or direction, or stepping through 
frame by frame for fine 
troubleshooting. Not happy yet? 
Make your adjustments, preview 
again and finally save the changes 
and exit to the Project Editor. 

It's render time 

OK, it's crunch time (literally). The 
Project Editor is where the final 
rendering of the scene takes place. 
But don't forget that we've only seen 



This is the rendered image of the 
head, shown in the Detail Editor. 

a preview of the action so far. We 
don't know whether the lighting levels 
or texture and brush maps are 
correct. So, to save time spent on 
rendering what may be unwelcome 
problems, it's best to render the 
sequence in a small version - 
perhaps 100 by 100 pixels in size, 
with Lace (Interlace) turned off. 

Next, select the range of frames 
you wish to render and hit Make. If 
you are using the fast processor 
version, stick around. If not, go and 
have a cup of tea and then come 
back. If all is correct, all you have to 
do is render the finished product. 

CMtfcwed on page 70 



The Incredible Exploding Head 






The perspective view shows a wire frame 
representation of what the camera sees. The 
camera and light positions are also shown. 



Here the head is exploding - a simple task to 
animate, because of the programs 
impressive built-in effects. 



Blown to bits. Now you too can make Death 
Wish XXVI- and all without having to get the 
gore off your carpets! 






AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1 99 1 



69 



VIDEO 



coating tron pa§t 69 

Whether it's a colour preview or a 
final rendering, you'll have to judge 
where to save the resulting files - 
which, depending on your output 
format, can be extremely large. As 
the animation is made by generating 
each frame as a picture, and then 
compressing the pictures together, 
you are given the choice of deleting 
any pictures which have already 
been incorporated into the animation 
- an option which obviously saves 
space. Whatever, you'll find that you 



object, a series of key frames can be 
set up which, when animated, will 
(with any luck) produce a smoothly 
animated 'walk'. As with the Stage 
Editor, a preview can be made to 
allow any creases to be ironed out. 
The resulting object can be saved like 
any other, to be loaded as an actor, 
choreographed and committed to 
posterity in an animation. 

The Cycle Editor is a handy tool 
which can produce interesting results 
fairly quickly, but I find it a little 
awkward to use, as positioning is not 





Creating abstract, 3-dlmenslonai shapes is easy using the Forms Editor. 

Although this doeen't look much like anything recognisable, practice 
makes perfect. Above right is how the Image looks when rendered. 



soon build up a large collection of 
disks filled with your 3D products. 

Skeletor strikes back 

If you're still with me, you'll probably 
remember from earlier in the article 
that there are two further modules to 
Imagine: Cycle and Forms. As we've 
already been able to make an 
animation, what are they for? An 
examination of the Tutorials section 
of the manual puts you straight about 
the Cycle Editor: "Cycle objects are 
really groups of objects joined in an 
interactively created hierarchy." If 
you are familiar with Deluxe Paint III, 
I suppose a Cycle object could be 
likened to a 3-dimensional 



Many Thanks 

Many thanks to Artbeat Computer 
Graphics Ltd., who generously 
loaned me a copy of the program for 
this review. 



AnimBrush. The idea is to produce a 
kind of 'hinged object' (where all the 
parts are hierarchically linked in a 
skeletal form - the head bone's 
connected to the neck bone and so 
on) on to which solid objects 
produced in the Detail or Forms 
Editors can be hung. 

As the skeletal form is 
hierarchically linked, this means that 
you can, for example, move a 
shoulder and the rest of the arm 
moves with it. 

Using tools to Pivot, Twist and 
Move the individual parts of an 



reliably accurate (there is no 
snapping to grid, for instance). 
However, I've had a hankering for 
some time to build a 3D Merry-Go- 
Round. Now it might just be possible. 

And finally, to da, the Forms 
Editor. The idea of this one seems to 
bo to use the supplied spherical 
shape to produce 'organic' forms. So 
far, I've managed to make some 
wicked-looking shapes, but more 
normal things are still eluding me. I 
think more practice is called for... 

As usual, work in the Forms 
Editor is done in a Quad view, but 
this time your task is to distort points 
of the sphere over three dimensions 
in order to create the shape of your 
dreams. Manipulation is done by 
dragging points around, and 
symmetrical movements can be 
defined by various settings. 

Resulting objects can be loaded 
into the Detail Editor for colouring 
and so on, but this is a one-way 
process: sadly, externally created 
objects cannot be loaded into the 
Forms Editor. 

A problem or two 

I'm sorry to soy that there are a 
number of problems with Imagine - 
not least the two part manual. The 
first part deals with all the features of 
the program, giving brief descriptions 
of all its functions. This is not too bad, 

but thoro or© glaring ©mission* - 

such as how to set the various 
parameters required when texture 
mapping. A ReadMe file is provided 
on ma disk, giving information about 

new additions and bug fixes - which 
is useful - but still does not make up 



is 



for the lack of detail, although to be 
fair Imagine works in many 
mysterious ways and to describe 
them all would probably decimate 
the planet's already-dwindling 
forests. 

The second part of the manual 
worse than the first. This is the 
Tutorials section, which I would hove 
thought would be rather important to 
new users I worked my way through 
all the tutorials (twice!), and if I 
hadn't known how to use Turbo Silver 
3 I would have had even bigger 
problems than I did. Not to say that 
TS3 is octually that similar to 
Imagine, but rather that it requires the 
user to have large amounts of 
patience and doggedness. Several of 
the tutorials were lacking in both 
visual and textual clarity, with some 
of the illustrations being very difficult 
to understand. This was especially 
true of the final tutorial, though 
imagination and graft got me there in 
the end. Not the nicest of 
introductions, though, and several 
people have remarked to me that 
they found the tutorials to be a 
hindranco rather than a help. 

Other areas I've experienced 
problems with are Boolean 
operations using Slice - some objects 
work fine, others just will not slice at 
all. This can be a real pain: for 
example, I brought in an IFF map of 
the world, converted it to an object 
and then wanted to put faces on the 
land masses before I conformed the 
whole lot to a spherical shape No 
way could I get it to work. 

I've also had problems doing 
something as simple as mapping a 
check texture on to a simple 
rectangle. Although I had had no 
problems doing this days earlier, 
over an hour of trying produced no 
joy this time. Other textures worked 
without problems. It seems that 
certain parts of Imagine are overly 
complicated and underexplained, or 
maybe I was just unlucky. 

Two further niggles involve the 
rendering of images. Turbo Silver 3 
had a facility for drawing a box 
around the area of an image you 
wished to render, allowing you to 
quickly check just small areas of your 
image. This would be nice to have in 
Imagine - rather than having to 
render the whole image (albeit at the 
size of your choice). It would mean 
that small areas could be previewed 
in full trace mode, for instance. 

Finally, Impulse guys, how about 
centering rendered images, instead 
of always keeping their top left 
corner at the top left of the screen? 
Just a little thing, but it would not only 
look better, but also be more useful, 
as animations could be rendered at a 
smaller image size and still be used 
for presentations without us all 
getting twisted necks looking at the 
top left of the screen. Q) 



000000000] 

Shopping List 



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by Impulse 

6870 Shingle (reek Parkway, 

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MN 55403 USA 

tr 01 01 305255 9302 

Imagine is available from 
most UK stockists - see 

the adverts for details. 




Checkout 

Imagine 



Documentation ••••.••••5/ 10 

The Tutorials section is frustraringry 
confusing. The Reference section is 
reasonable But both lack the in-depth 
detail which the Imagine user will (sooner 
rather than later) need. 

Ease of use 9/15 

More difficult to quantify, since Imagine 
allows you to do things which were 
previously very difficult to achieve, yet 
some of the simpler-seeming tasks are 
much more difficult than they ought to be 

Flexibility 13/15 

The program would appear to be very 
flexible, and with thought could provide 
some stunning effects and animations. 
However, it's definitely the case that the 
more you put in. the better the results 

Quality 13/15 

Another difficult one. Quality in this case is 
the final output image - and this depends 
on what type of format you require. As 
Imagine can output in many different 
formats, there's something here for 
everyone. Lighting and object attributes 
are as important here as the output format 
itself. But you could literally make a silk 
purse from a sow's ear, if you so wished. 

Features 1 5/20 

Imagine is packed with useful features. The 
Effects and the interactive tools for scaling, 
rotation and object placing are absolutely 
outstanding. 

Price 20/25 

Compared to Sculpt Animate 40 (c£320| 
and Real 3D (Turbo Pro version £409), 
Imagine seems to be something of a 
bargain. 



AAftJWwfr 



75/100 



While certain aspects of Imagine are a 
struggle to get to grips with, I am certainly 
hooked. Animation is a difficult process, 
but Imagine can help you make your 
dreams come true. This will be a package 
that dedicated Amiga animators will have 
to seriously consider adding to their 
armoury. And, in weighing up the pros 
and cons, I would think that for many, 
Imagine' i current shortcomings would not 
outweigh its other, excellent features. 



70 



AMIGA SHOPPER ♦ISSUE 4 ♦ AUGUST 1991 






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PROGRAM 



"This is the second part of Sam Littlewood's C 
programming series - a series which I believe is 
the first of its kind to be published in any British 
Amiga magazine. In it, he builds on last 
month's initial ideas by adding Amiga-specific 
things like windows to the program. 

The subject of the series, ADraw, is a 
structured drawing tool and will be of great 
practical use. As technical a% it is, Sam and I 
both feel it will be so good that it will inspire 



those of you still thinking about C to actually go 
out and do something about it. 

Remember that to follow the series, a 
working knowledge of the C programming 
language is assumed - that is, you are expected 
to understand terms like 'union' and 'linked list' 
and so on. If you're unfamiliar with such 
concepts, I've listed a number of books on C in 
the Shopping List at the end of the article.'' 

Jeff Walker 







In part one of his C tutorial Sam Littlewood outlined 
the ADraw application. The next step is to put 
theory into practice and add some Amiga-specific 
widgetry - windows, gadgets and projects 



he ability to deal with 
multiple projects requires 
some information to be held 
about each of the loaded 
projects. Copies of this structure ore 
allocated from AmigaDOS whenever 




Compilers 

The application described in 
these articles, ADraw, has been 
developed using SAS C 5.10. The 
only features particular to this 
compiler that have ben 
exploited are the 'proto/../ 
include files, giving prototypes 
and fast calls for all the Amiga 
library functions. 

With Aztec C, the 
equivalent information lives in a 
file called 'functions. h\ which 
can be included in place of the 
'proto/...' files. 

There are several freely re- 
distributable compilers around 
for the Amiga. This application 
has been compiled with GCC- 
the Amiga port of the GNU C 
compiler. However, there is a 
drawback to using these 
compilers, in that the rather 
necessary Commodore header 
must be acquired separately. It 
is available for $20 from CATS 
(Commodore Amiga Technical 
Support) - see the shopping list 
on page 77. 



a project is loaded from disk or 
whenever a new project is created. 
When ADraw starts, it creates one 
blank project to get the ball rolling. 

As mentioned in the last article, 
all these copies of the project 
structures are linked together in a list. 
Listing 1 shows what the Project 
structure looks like. 

The first item, node, is the hook 
by which copies of the structure are 
linked together; the base for this list is 
a global variable called Projects. This 
is initially set up to be an empty list 
by InitMinListj). Each project has one 
or more Intuition windows viewing it. 
Each window has a chunk of memory 
associated with it, each linked on to 
the list windows 

The actual data contained in the 
project - the lines, circles, boxes, 
and so on - all hang from the 
elements list. If one of the top level 
items in the project is a group of 
items, then it will have its own Minlist 
structure and the bits of the group will 
be linked to that. 

When ADraw becomes useable, 
a feature that will most certainly be 
required is that it does not let you 
lose unsaved work without checking. 
The element of the structure called 
modified is used to remember if the 
project has been changed since it 
was last saved to disk. 

Project structures 

Hoving initialised the project list, a 
new Project structure can be 
allocated and added to the list. 
The function that does this, 
CreoteProject(), makes a new untitled 
project, and can be seen in Listing 2 
on page 74. 

The Exec function AllocMem() 
knows nothing about the size of C 



structures - it must be given the size 
in bytes. The need to sit down and 
physically count up the individual 
bytes of a structure and then leave 
this number in the source code (thus 
making alterations difficult) is 
removed by sizeof. Although this 
may appear to be a function, it is not 
- it is an operator built into the C 
compiler that gets replaced with a 
magic number appropriate to the 
size of its argument. That argument 
can either be a type name - int, char 
*, struct Project - or it can be an 
expression, as used above. The code 
sizeof (* project) gets replaced by the 
size of the sort of things pointed at 
by Project. These are struct Projects, 
the same number would have been 
given if sizeof(struct Project) had 
been used in its place. 



Project names are also stored in 
a separate allocated block. Since C 
strings have a zero (\0) byte at the 
end, this must be accounted for when 
allocating the chunk of memory. 

If it was guaranteed that the user 
would never hove more than 10 
untitled projects around, then the 
length of new project names would 
be fixed. Removing this guarantee 
means that the name is first built up 
in a temporary area that has more 
than enough room. Once 
constructed, the new string is then 
inspected, the appropriate amount 
of memory allocated and the 
temporary data copied to its final 
resting place - strcpy() has the 
destination argument on the left, 
source on the right. 

Since the name will have to be 
freed at some point, the allocated 
size is kept in the project structure for 
this future moment. 

When a previously set up project 
is being torn down, the first thing to 
find out is if the user really meant it. 
The 'if statement at the top of 
KillProject() combines all the checks 

cofltimed oo poge 74 



LISTING 1 - PROJECT STRUCTURE 



struct Project { 
/* Node used to link project 
*/ 
struct MinNode node; 



onto global list 



/* Flag, true if project has been changed since last save 

V 

unsigned char modified; 

/* Name of project - a pointer to a block acquired from AllocMemO 

V 

char *name; 

short name ..length; /* Length includes * \0 * * / 

/* List of the windows onto the project 

V 

struct MinList windows; 

short num windows; 

/* The top level list of elements within the projact 



struct MinList elenvents; 



)i 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1991 



73 



«f 



PROGRAMMING 



continued from page 73 

for this into one. The && (logical 
AND) operator always works left to 
right, and if it finds something that is 
false it stops evaluating immediately. 

When the argument 'force' is 
true, then (force will be false, and 
nothing further happens. When the 
modified flag for the project is false, 
again nothing happens. Only if the 
previous two things were true does 
ConCanRequest() get called. This 
brings up a box for the user to click 
Continue or Cancel. If this returns 
CC.CANCEL, then finally the code 
associated with the if is executed - a 
return out of the function leaving the 
project intact. 

Getting rid of a project from 
memory means that all the windows 
on to that project are also removed. 



A pointer is moved to each window 
in the linked list, removing them in 
turn. But this introduces a slight 
problem: moving the pointer involves 
digging out the next pointer from the 
current data structure. Removing the 
window involves freeing up the data 
structure. The memory containing the 
next pointer we require at each stage 
will have been returned to the system 
by killing the current window. So the 
data which we have stored will be 
inconsistent The solution to this 
problem, shown in Listing 3, is to get 
the value of the next pointer before 
the window is removed. 

When a 'for' loop checks the 
condition to continue the loop, it 
evaluates the middle of its three 
expressions. This one takes a copy of 
the next node. As well as just 



LISTING 3 - GET NEXT POINTER VALUE 




struct MinNode 'node, "next; 




/• Walk 'node' along list when list la not being modified by this process 
for (node ■ liat .mlh_Head; node- >mln_ Succ; node ■ node->mln„Succ) 






/* Do acroething with 'node' */ 




/* Walk 'node' along liat when liat la being freed aa we go 
for (node ■ liat .»lh_Head; next - node->mln_Succ; node - next) 






/* Do aomething with 'node' and free memory */ 





assigning, an ■ expression has the 
value that was assigned, so the value 
of the next pointer is checked for the 
loop condition. At the end of the 
loop, the last of the three expressions 
is evaluated, which simply copies the 
stored value 'next' into the variable 
'node' again. 



LISTING 2 - THE ' C R E ATE P RO J E CT( ) ' FUNCTION 



/' 



* The global linked liat of all projects 
•/ 

■cruet MinList Projects; 
int NumProjectsaO; 

/* CreateProject 

• 

* Create an untitled empty project and add it to the 

* projects liat 

* Returns a pointer to the created project 
V 

/* Static variable holding the next number to used for new 

* untitled projects 
*/ 

int DntitledNumber = 1; 

struct Project "CreateProject (void) 

( 

char name [UNTITLED NAXLEN] ; 

atruct Project "project; 

/* Generate a temporary copy of the project name, also 

• increment 

" the 'Untitled' number. 

•/ 

■printf (nam«,"Untitled-VJ",UntitledNumber+*)/ 
/* Allocate the new project atructure 

project - AllocMem(eizeof ("project), MEMF CLEAR); 

if (project ■» NULL) AllocError(AB PROJECT) ; 

/* Set the name, allocated memeory is length of string* 1 

• to allow 

• apace for the '\0' at the end of atrings 
•/ 

project->name length > atrlen(name)+l; 
project->name = AllocMem(project->name_length,0) ; 
if (project->namew =- NULL) AllocError(AE_PROJlCT>; 

atrcpy(project->name,name) ; 
/' Initialise the window list 

InitMinList(fcproject->windowB) ; 

project->nu»_ windows ■ 0; 

/• Initialise the element list 

•/ 

InitMlnList(fcproject->elementa); 

/• Add project to global list using Exec function 

• AddHeadO 
•/ 

AddHead) (struct List "JfcProjecte, (struct Node •) project); 

NumProjects**; 

return project; 



* it and remove all its data 

* takes a flag to say if uaer should not be queried if 

* project is modified 
*/ 

void KillProject (struct Project "project, int force) 

( 

struct MinNode * node, "next; 

/• If project has been modified, then check with user 

"/ 

if (t force &4 

project ->modif led fct 

ConCanRequest ( "Project has been modified") »■ 
CC^CANCEL) 

return; 

/• Close any windows open on this project 
•/ 

forfnode * project->windowe.mlh„Head; next ■ node- 
>mln Succ; node - next) 

KillProjectWindow( (struct UaerWindow "(node); 
/• Return all the memory occupied by the project data to 
* system 
•/ 
PreeElementLiet(aproject->eleawintB}; 



/• Take project of global 

• Remove { J 

•/ 



liat, use Exec function 



Remove ( (struct Node 


•) project); 


NumProjects--/ 




/* 


Tree the project 


DjbbM 


•/ 






rr« 


seMeeM project ->name, project -> 


/• 


Pree the base memory 


V 







length); 



FreeMem(project.aizeof ("project)); 

> 

/' InitKinList 



) 

/* 

* 



KillProject 

Remove a Project from the 
are viewing 



system - close any windows that 



* Setup an exec. library MinList atructure for future uae 

* The head and tail point at each other and the shared next 

* pointer is NULL. 
*/ 

void InitMinLiatt atruct MinLiat "list) 
I 

liet->mlh_Head -(atruct MinNode *)fclist->mlh Tail; 

Hst->mlh_Tall ■ NULL; 

Hst->mlh_TailPred -(struct MinNode ")fcliat->mlh Head; 
J 



Windows 

Having a linked list of projects in 
memory is fine to an extent, but we 
want to get at that data. The 
portholes through which this happens 
are the Intuition windows. 

ADraw con render the current 
view of a project into the window, 

and the user can hit gadgets 
and click with the mouse to 
change that view or edit the 
project. An Intuition window 
is created by giving it a 
template - the NewWindow 
structure. Referencing this, 
Intuition allocates and fills in 
a new structure, Window 
as well as creating the on- 
screen imagery that one 
associates with a window. 
The Intuition Window 
structure has all the 
information Intuition needs 
to maintain the window, 
and information that lets the 
program draw into it and 
get input from the window. 
Any modifications to the 
actual window beyond 
drawing into it are done by 
calling an Intuition function 
with the appropriate 
information. This gives 
Intuition a chance to keep 
up to date the display and 
its internal ideas as to what 
is happening: 

/• Jtove window 10 pixels to 

right V 
KoveWindow(window_ptr f 10,0l; 



ADraw will want to draw 
into the window, get input 
and change things like the 
title. For this sort of work it 
need go no further than the 
structures and functions 
provided by the Intuition 
and Graphics libraries. 
There is, however, a 
further level of operations 
for which the base structures 
are not suitable. The 
windows have to be linked 
to projects, and there has to 
be some information about 
where in the project the 
window is looking. All this 
information, particular to 
ADraw, is kept in a private 
window structure. 






74 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1991 



PROGRAMMING 



itruc turti 



Project 1 




Project 2 




window* — 


u * ndouft — 




Mittl>i 1*1 t LT 1 



Intuit ion 
Structures 



HtorUindow 1 
r#* I .window "3i 



H1lll1tMfttlfll(tlttlttM*"*<< 



r 



Hmdow 1 



■ " Uoorfrota 






rtii window — S 



IIMIMIIIttlll 



r 



^=4 

WftorUindow 3 

reel wtndow -w 



Wtn.lnu ? 



*- - UitrP4t 



r 



UinHou 3 



tMMStttMM ■••■* 



Mllttlfltt 



■tttmiMitfM i m i w i w ii •»* 



Intuit ton 



Hmdow 1 P ll 

— r — rt """""' U 



LISTING 5 - FOLLOW THE POINTERS 



/* Given an Intuition window pointer, return a pointer to the 

* approprate Project structure 
•/ 
•truct Project •windowToProject (struct Window *real window) 

< 

struct UserWindow *uw; 

/• Get to the UserWindow 

•/ 
uw - (struct UserWindow •) (real_window->UserData) ; 



/* Prom that, get to the project 

•/ 
return uw->project; 



An example ADraw structure with two projects and three windows 



For each Intuition window there is 
one of these private structures, struct 
UserWindow. Each allocated 
UserWindow structure will have o 
pointer to the real Intuition window. 
In the opposite direction. Intuition sets 
aside one variable in its Window 
structure for use by the program, 
UserData. This general pointer is 
made to point at the corresponding 
UserWindow within ADraw. 

An example with two projects 
and three windows is shown in the 
diagram at the top of the page. At 
the top are the bits local to ADraw, 
the list of project blocks and, 
attached to each project, the 
UserWindow blocks. In the middle 
are the Intuition window structures, 
each one has its UserData pointer 
referencing a UserWindow. The first 
part of the UserWindow structure is 
shown in Listing 4 below. 

Structure navigation 

As well as the reference to the 
Intuition window, there is also a 
pointer back up to the project that 



LISTING 4 



■tract UserWindow ( 
/* Node to link window! to a project 

•/ 

struct MinNods node; 
/* Inutitton window connected to this 
user window 

•/ 

•tract Window •real jriodow; 

/• The project being viewed by this 
window 

•/ 

struct project "project; 

/• Where window is looking in project 

*l 
Coordinate x,y; 

/• Current xocei level 

*/ 

unsigned short xoobj 

/* More things to be added later ... 
•/ 
)l 



this window is looking at. With this, 

and all the other references, 

navigating from one structure to 

another is easy. For example, when 
Intuition passes input to a program, 

not only does it say what happened, 



it says which window it happened in. 
This information is in the form of a 
pointer to the Intuition window. To 
find the corresponding project, we 
just follow the pointers (see Listing 5). 

To create a project window, 
there must first be a templote - the 
NewWindow structure. The storting 



size for the window in this template is 
filled in when ADraw starts and looks 
at the current Workbench screen via 
GetScreenDataj). The window title is 
set up to be the project name. 

Once the template is set up, the 
window is opened, and then all the 

continued on poge 76 



LISTING 6 - ALLOCATE AND LINK PRIVATE PATA 



/* Template for new project windows 

*/ 

struct NewWindow NewProject Window - { 

0,12, /' Top left and top rigbt of window •/ 

0,0. /• Width sad height of window (Filled ln)V 

0,1, /• Graphics pens for rendering window •/ 

0. /* IDCKP flags, filled in later •/ 

SIKPLE_REPRESH! 
WINIXWCLQSEIVTCNTOWSIZINGlWINIKJWDRAGIWINim^PTH. 

SIZEBBOTTOKISI2BBRIGHTIACTIVATB, /• Window flags •/ 
NULL, /• Gadget list, filled in later */ 

/• Checkmark imagery •/ 
/• Title, filled in later V 
/• Screen pointer •/ 
/• Bitmap pointer '/ 
/* KiniBun width and height */ 
/• Maximum width and height (Filled in| # / 



NULL, 

NULL, 

NULL, 

NULL, 

200,64, 

0.0, 



WBENCHSCREEN 



/* Screen type •/ 



)l 

/• The IDCKP flags used for a project window 
•/ 

•define PROJECT IDCMP RErPESHWIWDOW! KEWSIZEIMOUSEBUTTONS l\ 

GADC«TIX*«!GADGETOT1CU)SBWINDW^ 

/• CrMtsProjectWindow 

• 

• Given a project structure, open a new window that 

* displays that project 
•/ 

struct UserWindow 'CreateProjectNindow(8truct Projtct 

♦project) 

{ 

struct Window •window; 

struct UserWindow *ueer window; 

/* Allocate private window data structure 

u§er_window = AllocMemlsizeof ('uBer_window),HEKF CLEAR); 
if (user, window ■■ NULL) AllocBrror(AB.WINDOW) i 

■'• Set the window title to point at the project name 

•/ 
NewProjectWindow. Title ■ project->name; 

/• Add the gadgets 

•/ 

BuildCadgetefuser window); 

NewProjectWindow.FirBtOadget=feuser window->toois [0) ; 
,' Open the new window - no IDCKP flags set. so no new 



* IDCKP port created 

V 

window ■ OpenWindow(iNewProjectWindow)j 

if (window ■• NULL) { 

FreeKesHuser.window, sizeof (*ueer_ window) ) ; 
Al locBrror ( AE_W1ND0W) 

) 

. * Set window to use shared message port 
•/ 
window- >UserPort ■ ProjectPort; 
Kodif yIDCWPIwindow, PROJECT. IDCKP); 

/* Croes link Intuition window, user .window and project 
•/ 
window- >UserData ■ (void •)user_window; 

user_window->real .window ■ window; 
user window- >project ■ project; 
project- >num_ windows**; 

/• Attach window to project 
•/ 
AddHead( (struct List •)fcproject->windows, (struct Node 
*)user_window) ; 



return user window; 



I 



/• KillProjectwindow 

• 

• Given a private window structure, remove that view of a 

• project 

•/ 
void KillProjectWindowistruct UserWindow •ussr^window) 

( 

/* Take of project's window list 
V 
Removst (struct Node *)user_window); 

ussr_window->rsal_window->UserPort ■ NULL; 
CloseWindow(user_window->real_window) ; 

user_window- >pro ject - >num_windows - - ; 

/* Free the private window data 
•/ 
FreeKemtuser window, sizeof ('user window)); 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1991 



75 



*£ 



PROGRA 



I N G 



Tool Gadgets 



D 1 UntiWdl 



1 




lOAbc 




Draw Area 



ezi 




4 



Horizontal 
Scroll Bar 




Page Left 
Gadget 





Vertical Scroll 
Bar 



Page Up 
Gadget 



Page Down 
Gadget 



Page Right 
Gadget 



Each project window will have a bar of tool buttons along the top, and scroll bars at the edges 



(MlNwed from poge 75 

private data is allocated and linked 
together (Listing 6). 

Attached to each Intuition 
window is o message port. This is the 
rendezvous point for messages about 



input. Intuition adds messages to the 
port as things happen. The program 
can wait for new messages and, 
when they arrive, pull them off the 
port and process them. You may not 
be surprised to find out that the 



LISTING 7 - ADD TO USERWINDOW 



•truce OserWindow { 

/• Elements previously declared to be in OserWindow 
V 



/• New eli 
*/ 

/* 

* All the tool gadgets along the top of the window 
V 

struct Gadget tools (NUM TOOLS]; 
/• 

* The up an down scroll buttons 
•/ 

struct Gadget scrollup; 
struct Gadget ecrolldownj 
/* 

* The left and right scroll buttons 
•/ 

struct Gadget scrollleft; 
struct Gadget scrol 1 right; 
/• 

* The horizontal and vertical scroll bare 
*/ 

struct Gadget hacrollbar; 

struct Gadget vscrollbarj 
/• 

* Proportional gadget special info 

V 
struct Proplnfo hscrollinfo; 

struct Proplnfo vscrollinfo; 

/* 

* Proportinal gadgets need a dunmy image - this is used by Intuition for 

* internal variables, relating to gadget, so oust be unique to each gadget 
•/ 

struct Image hncrol 1 image ; 

struct Image vscrollimage; 



)«' 



message port and messages are built 
on the same Exec linked lists that 
ADraw uses. 

The NewWindow structure has a 
field colled IDCMPFIags which 
describes what sort of input event the 
program will be interested in. 

If any of these flags are set, then 
Intuition will create a new message 
port for a window when it is opened 
and leave a pointer to it in window- 
>UserPort. If ADraw followed this 
approach there would be a new 
rendezvous point to check for input 
for every project window that was 
opened. From the programming point 
of view this is a little more work, but 
there is also a rather more 
fundamental limitation. The means by 
which a message port indicates that 
something has arrived is a signal. 
This is like a flag - it gets set when a 
message arrives and cleared when 
the program has dealt with it. Unlike 
a simple variable, it is cheap in terms 
of processor time to wait for a signal 
to be set. 

Tasking lullabye 

When a program waits for a signal, 
something any Intuition program 
spends o lot of time doing, the Exec 
function Wait)) will put the calling 
task to sleep, consuming no 
processor time. The task will be 
resumed when something else, like 
Intuition, sets the required signal. So 
what about this limitation? Well, part 
of signals being cheap is that there 
are only 32 of them for each task, 
and 1 6 of these get grabbed for 
predefined things. 

An upper limit of 16 signals, or 
less if other Amiga libraries get used, 
means a rather low limit on the 



number of windows useable by 
taking the simple approach. 

To get around this problem, only 
one message port (and signal) is 
used. All windows rendezvous with 
this shored port. To do this, windows 
are initially opened with no IDCMP 
flags set. Intuition believes that no 
input is required, and thus no new 
message port is created. Once the 
window has been set up, its UserPort 
pointer is directed at the shared port 
(ProjectPort), and ModifylDCMP() is 
used to indicate the types of input we 
would really like. 

When a window is closed, the 
process must be reversed - otherwise 
Intuition will try and de-allocate a 
port that it thinks is unique to the 
window. The UserPort pointer is 
simply set to NULL before calling 
CloseWindowl 



Gadgets 

Having got a window on to the 
screen, we need some buttons for the 
user to press. Each project window 
wilt have a bar of tool burtons along 
the top, ond scroll bars at the edges, 
as shown in the illustration ot the top 
of this page. 

The standard system gadgets are 
inherited, and the creation and 
management of these is largely left to 
Intuition. The labelled gadgets in the 
diagram are the ones that ADraw 
will have to create and manage itself. 

Each on-screen gadget is 

represented by a separate copy of 
the Intuition structure colled Gadget 
If there are two ADraw windows 
open then, for example, the Tool Bar 
gadgets in each of the windows must 
be held as different copies of the 
Gadget structure. 

As each window must have its 
own set of gadgets, the ideal place 
to put all this data is in the 
UserWindow structure, which is 
already unique to each Intuition 
window; so the code in Listing 7 is 
added to the declaration of struct 
UserWindow. 

It is important to note that all 
these additions ore the actual 
structures, not pointers to some other 
piece of memory. This makes 
instances of the UserWindow 
structure fairly large chunks of data, 
but it has to go somewhere. 

Since UserWindow structures ore 
allocated on the fly, each new set of 
gadget structures will have to be 
filled in by the program. This is 
handled by the function 
BuildGodge'sj) - it takes a pointer to 
a UserWindow structure and does oil 
the required initialisation. 

All the gadgets have to be linked 
together into a list. A pointer to the 
first in the list is then put in the 
NewWindow structure, so that when 
the window opens, the gadgets are 
there ready. 

The Tool Bar gadgets are 



76 



AMIGA SHOPPFR • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1 99 1 



*? 



PROGRAMMING 



\ 



relatively simple, as their positions 
within the window remain the same 
whatever happens. They'are set up to 
be boolean gadgets, so Intuition will 
pass a message whenever one of 
them is pressed. 

The remaining gadgets are rather 
more complicated. Since the user can 
re-size the window, their positions 
relative to the origin of the window 
are not fixed, and Intuition does tell 
programs when a window has been 
re-sized. While it would be possible 
on receiving this message to pull 
apart the existing gadget list and 
rebuild it for the new size, there is in 
fact an easier method which can be 
used to get around the problem. 

Gadget positions are normally 
given from the top left of a window. 
Two flags in the gadget structure - 
GREIRIGHT and GRELBOTTOM - 
can be set to say that rather than the 
normal case, the gadget is to be 
positioned relative to the bottom 
and/or the right of the window 

The Page Up/Down gadgets 
have positions relative to the bottom 
right (see Listing 8). As this Page Up 
gadget is actually in the border of the 
window, a flag is set in 
Gadget.Activation (RIGHTBORDER) 
to tell Intuition that when it refreshes 



JARGO 




BUSTING 



ALLOCMEM: This is o funtion in the Exec library. When called, it 
returns a pointer to on area of memory of a size 
specified by the function's parameter. This is useful for 
creating temporary space for data while a program is 
running, especially if the size of this space is unknown 
when the program is written. 

EXEC: The part of the Amiga's operating system dealing 

with bask functions such as the allocation of memory to 
programs and the handling of multi-tasking* 

INTUITION: The part of the Amiga's operating system concerned 
with window handling, menus and so forth. It interprets 
user input from the mouse and sends information to the 
relevant windows via the Intuition Direct Communication 
Message Ports. See Paul Overoa's intuition programming 
article on page 79. 

LINKED LIST: A method of storing data. The data is collected into 



a series of similar groups or records; part of the data in 
each of these records is a pointer to the next record in 
the list. 

STRUCTURE: A class of data storage in C whereby a group of 
data types ■ for example, integers, strings and reals - 
are joined together in a particular order to form a user- 
defined type. One of the possible types making up a 
structure may be another previously defined structure. 

UNION: A neat trick in C that allows a single structure to store 
one of several different types of data in the same space. 
The space for the structure is initialised to be enough to 
contain the largest of the possible types in the union. For 
example, a structure designed to hold date information 
might contain a union for the month part of the dote. 
This would be o union between on integer and a string, 
so that the month could be stored either as a number 
between one and twelve or as a word. 



that border, it should refresh this 
gadget as well. 

Although the actual gadgets are 
allocated per window, the imagery is 
not. There are a fixed set of images 
set up within ADraw, and each new 
version of a gadget just references 
the appropriate one. A restriction on 
gadgets that use GRELRIGHT and 
GRELBOTTOM is that all the imagery 
associated with the gadget must fit 
within the gadget hit box. This is so 
that Intuition knows what to rub out 



LISTING 8 - PAGE UP GADGET 



/* Part of BuildGadgetBO - Initialise Page Up gadget 



/* Gadget is in from right of window by its width 



uw > icrol lup . Left Edge 



■ -VSCR BUT WIDTH+li 



/• It is up from bottom by the size of the bottom border plus its 
* and the Page Down gadget's height 



own 



uw- > icrol lup . TopEdge 



■ -(bottom.width + VSCR. BUT HEIGHT*2); 



/• The hitbox for the gadget 



uw->scrol lup. width 
uw- >scrollup . Height 



VSCR BUT WIDTH ; 
VSCR BUT HEIGHT; 



/• Use images for the gadget picture, and position relative to bottom right 

* of window 



uw->scrollup. Flags t 
/• Refresh this with rest 
uw->scrol lup. Activation i 
/•A plain boolean gadget 



GADGIMAGE1 GADGHIMAGEI GRELRIGHT I GRELBOTTOM; 



of system updates 



GADGIMMEDIATE I RIGHTBORDER ; 



uw->scrollup.GadgetType • BOOLGADGBTj 

/• Imagery to use for normal and selected 

*/ 
uw >ocrol lup . GadgctRender- ( void * ) &lRender_Scrol lUp; 
uw->»crollup.SelectRender« (void * >&ISelect_ScrollUpj 

/* User data so that this gadget can be identifed when it is hit 
V 

uw->scrollup.GadgetID - GID_SCROLLUP; 



when the gadget is moved via a re- 
sizing of the window. 

All the other burton gadgets are 
similar to the above, with different 
numbers. Which just leaves us with 
the scroll bars... 

Scroll bars 

The scroll bars are not as simple as a 
plain click on/oft burton, as the 
height or width of them varies with 
the size of the window, which can be 
addressed by using the GRELHEIGHT 
and GRELWIDTH flags. 
These say that a gadget's 
size is relative to the size 
of the window - for 
example, the horizontal 
scroll bar is the width of 
the window minus the 
width of the Page 
Left/Right buttons and the 
right-hand border. 

A further problem with 
the scroll bars is that they 
need an additional lump 
of data for the information 
particular to proportional 
gadgets. The 
UserWindow structure is 
the victim - hscrollinfo 
and vscrollinfo are those 
data blocks. Proportional 
gadgets can have two 
sorts of knobs (the bit in 
the box that gets 
dragged): the knobs can 
be normal bitmaps, like 
any other gadget, or they 
can be AutoKnobs. 

An AutoKnob changes 
size depending on how 
much data there is to 
scroll. If the AutoKnob is 
selected, then the 
GodgetRender member of 
the Gadget structure still 
points to an Image 
structure, although a 
completely empty one. 
A big pitfall here is 
thot, unlike every other 
case, this type of gadget 
actually modifies the 
Image structure. This 



means that each proportional 
AutoKnob gadget must have its own 
unique copy, and the UserWindow 
structure grows. 

More next month 

With the ability to create windows 
and gadgets, the application so far is 
an empty vessel waiting for life to be 
poured in - in the shape of the code 
to manage all the nice commodities 
that have been provided. 

To that end, the ADrow-specific 
wiring underneath the user interface 
will be the subject of part three of this 
article, next month, f^j 

OOOGGCJOOO 

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AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1 99 1 



77 




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PROGRA 



I N G 








BEGINNERS 

START HERE 



What is Intuition? 

Intuition actually means different 

things to different people. 

First and foremost, and this 
is the way most programmers 
think of it, Intuition is just a mass 
of pre-written system routines 
designed to make the 
programmer's job of working 
with windows, gadgets and 
menus easier. Secondly, Intuition 
is the name given to the 
'personality' behind the 
high-level 'user interface' part of 
the Amiga's operating system 
(that is, the part with which the 
user interacts when using 
gadgets, menus and the mouse). 
This personality, however, comes 
not, to a large extent, from the 
underlying system routines 
themselves, but rather from the 
fact that Amiga programmers 
are encouraged to adopt a 
consistent approach to building 
the user-interface parts of their 
programs. 

What about Messages? 

On the Amiga, a great many 
things are happening all the 
time. At the same time as 
Intuition is checking for user 
activity, programs are asking for 
the use of printers, disk drives, 
memory and so on. Intuition, 
being the 'top level', has to be 
able to communicate with any 
and all of the programs which 
are running, to pass on 
information about what the user 
has done. At the same time, it 
must be able to receive messages 
from programs when they need 
things like access to the disk 
drive. The mechanism used to 
handle all of the information 
zooming about between 
programs and Intuition is based 
on the Exec system software's 
message system. 




Paul Overaa investigates the 
message passing facilities built in 
to Intuition, and looks at how to 
write your programs to take the 
best advantage of them 



"If you've ever wondered how an 
Amiga program knows when a 
gadget is selected, or when the 
mouse is moved, here's your 
chance to find out ..." 

Paul Overaa 



Intuition, the Amiga's User 
Interface, was designed to 
ensure that a user's interaction 
with the machine is simple, 
enjoyable and consistent (in other 
words... intuitive). The tools to 
achieve this are, to a large extent, 
provided by Intuition itself, and 
provided that the proper conventions 
are followed, programmers are able 
to take advantage of multi-window 
facilities, gadgets and many other 
Intuition facilities to help simplify their 
programming tasks. 

If it wishes, a program can open 
virtual terminals - areas from which it 
receives and delivesr information. 
Such a program regards its virtual 
terminal as covering the entire 
screen, and is usually totally unaware 
that other programs may have 
windows on display at the same 
time. Users, however, have a rather 
different view. They see a program's 
terminal as a window which may be 
moved around, resized, or even 
hidden from view. From a 
programmer's viewpoint Intuition is 
good news - it can, and often does, 
handle these inter-program display 
changes without the program ever 
even knowing that they occurred. The 
end result of all this high-tech jiggery 
pokery is that the programmer's life is 
made a little simpler, without having 
to sacrifice any of the program's 
user-friendliness. 

Waiting patiently 

Even when your Amiga is just sitting 
there doing nothing, Intuition is still 
active, continually listening for any 
information that may arrive from the 
input devices (mouse, keyboard, 
joysticks, serial port and so on). It 
looks at this data, uses what it 
regards as useful to itself, and then 
passes the rest of the data on to any 
other interested parties - in other 
words, to any programs which are 
running on the machine. 

If you, as a programmer, had to 
cope with everything that Intuition 
took an interest in, you would really 
have your work cut out. Fortunately, 
then, programs can be selective 
about the type of events they wish to 



receive. If, for instance, a program 
needs to know when disks are 
inserted or removed, it asks Intuition 
to send it a message about these 
events as and when they occur. If the 
program doesn't need to worry about 
disk insertion and removal then it just 
does not ask Intuition for those types 
of messages to be passed on in the 
first place. 

One of the ways in which 
Intuition can be coaxed into sending 
relevant information to a program is 
via Intuition's Direct Communications 
Message Port system, affectionately 
called the IDCMP. This is built upon 
the Exec message system, and 
provides a two-way communication 
process which allows programs to 
both transmit messages to, and 
receive messages from, Intuition. 

Message structure 

The 'IntuiMessages' used to carry the 
packets of information have a 
standard layout which is based on an 
extended exec Message structure. As 
a C structure, an IntuiMessage takes 
the following form: 



struct IntuiMessage { 

struct Message 

ExecMessage; 

UL0N3 Class; 

USHORT Code; 

USHORT Qualifier; 

APTR I Address; 

SHORT MouseX, 

MouseY; 

ULONG Seconds, 

Micros ; 

struct Window*IDCMPWindow; 

struct IntuiMessage 
*SpecialLink; 

}; 

In order to use IntuiMessages, you 
need to be able to extract 
information from the structure. Below 
is a list of the purposes of the various 
fields in the structure: 

ExecMessage: This field contains 
message characteristics, such as the 
length of the message's body data, 
which are needed by the Exec. You 

(Mtinved on page 80 



Beneath the 
surface, these 
gadgets in the 
File Requester 
are talking to 
both Intuition 
and the 
program. 




As a window 
becomes 
active. 
Intuition can 
let your 
program 
know about 
it via the 
messaging 
system. 






AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1991 



79 



PROGRAMM NG 



COflnBVM UOIB pO^C 7 T 

are unlikely to want this information 
and you should certainly not interfere 
with it or alter it in any way- 
Class: This is a variable whose bits 
correspond directly with the 
equivalent IDCMP flags. You will 
usually check the contents of this 
variable against particular flag 
definitions so that you know what 
type of message you have received. 

(Address field: This provides the 
address of the object to which the 
message refers. Whenever you have 
to find out about the current state of 
Intuition objects (for example, 
whether a Gadget is on or off), you 
will use this address to locate the 
object's structure. 

You will often see the Class and 
(Address variables used jointly for 
selecting message handling routines 



Bit 17 



\ 



This is the mask 
arrangement needed 
if mp_ SigBit - 16 



00000000 00000001 00000000 00000000 



BLITS 



According to the dictionary, 
intuition is The power of the 
mind by which it immediately 
perceives the truth of things 
without reasoning or analysis: a 
truth so perceived, immediate 
knowledge in contrast with 
mediate/ Why can't dictionary 
compilers write in English? 



& BOBS 



and, when appropriate, passing the 
address of the object to them. In C, 
'switch' statements are frequently 
used to handle the message stream, 
and the code will frequently take the 
following form: 

/• Read the data fros the nessage 
structure, then... •/ 
/* identify message type */ 
class a message- >Class; 
/* get object's address V 
address = message- >I Address; 
/* then do something with it V 
switch (class) { 
case GAK&TUP: 

GadgetActivity (address}; break; 
case CL0S9II1HM: 

ExitRoutineO; break; 
default: 
UnexpectedMessageO; break; 
I 

The Code and Qualifier fields 
depend very much on the type of 
message. For instance, if the 
keyboard device is providing raw 
keyboard data then the Code field 
will contain the untranslated 
character and the Qualifier field will 
tell you whether the [Shift] or [Ctrl] 
keys were also pressed. 



The T Is at bit 17 because it has been shifted left 16 times. 



Each message is stamped with 
mouse co-ordinates and the system 
time. MouseX and MouseY are the 
co-ordinates of the mouse at the time 
given by the Seconds and Micros 
fields. The other two fields in the 
structure are IDCMPWindow, which 
is a pointer to the relevant Window 
structure, and SpecialLink, which is 
used only by the system. 

Making a start 

The easiest way to gain access to an 
IDCMP is to specify one or more of 
the IDCMP flags when you open a 
window - see the boxout on the next 
page for a rundown of the flag 
messages and what they mean. If 
Intuition sees that you've set one or 
more of the IDCMP flags in the 
NewWindow structure then it will 
automatically create a pair of 
message ports for that window. One 
port, the WindowPort, is used by 
Intuition, while the other is referred to 
as the UserPort and is for the 
program's use. Intuition arranges for 
signal bits to be allocated to the 
message ports, and it is by looking at 
these signal bits that we can tell 
when messages have arrived. 

Both IDCMP message ports will 
be part of the Window structure 
describing the window being used. A 
message port structure contains a 
field designed to hold an 8-bit value 
called mp_SigBit, which represents 
the signal bit number which has been 
assigned to the port. 

The messages which we have 
requested will arrive at the UserPort, 
so if g_window_p is a pointer to the 
Window structure, then the C code 
needed to refer to the signal bit 
number of the UserPort looks like this: 

g_window_p -> UserPort -> mp_SigBit 

We will want to examine the allotted 
signal bit in order to tell whether 
there are any messages for us. Often, 
when waiting for gadgets to be hit, 
the program will be just sitting there 
waiting for particular types of 
message to occur. With the Amiga's 
multi-tasking system, you don't poll 
for such events, becuase that just ties 
up the processor unnecessarily, but 
instead you use the Exec Wait() 
function, which allows the program 
to sleep until some chosen event 
wakes it up. 

WaitO requires us to pass a 
parameter indicating which signal 
bits we are interested in. It is 
important to realise that the 
parameter which is expected is a 32- 



bit mask - it is not the signal bit 
number contained in the UserPort's 
mp_SigBit field. The difference 
between the two forms is best seen 
by looking at the example at the top 
of the page. 

To convert the mp_SigBit value to 
a mask we left-shift the number l an 
appropriate number of times, namely 
mp_SigBit times. In C we use the « 
operator to achieve this, so the code 
required could take the following 
form: 

shift_required = 

g_window_p -> UserPort -> sp_SigBit; 
mask = 1 « shift_required; 
Wait (mask) ; 

This can be combined into a single 
line of code; the result is the 
following succinct but obtuse C line 
that you've no doubt already seen in 
the Amiga manuals: 

Wait(l«g_windDw_p -> UserPort 
->ap_SigBit); 

When this line of code is executed, 
the program goes to sleep - that is, it 
becomes inactive - until an event 
occurs which results in a message 
being sent to our UserPort. When 
such a message is received, the 



program needs to do several things: 

a) It must collect the message by 
using the GetMsgQ function, and this 
requires the UserPort address as a 
parameter. 

b) It must extract the necessary 
information from the message. 

c) It must tell Intuition that the 
message has been dealt with, which 
it does by using the ReplyMsg() 
function. The parameter needed in 
this case is a pointer to the message. 
As far as our example goes, we are 
interested in the part of the program 
which hondles these messages - that 
is, the part which detects them, 
identifies their class, and performs 
some appropriate actions. 

There are a couple of points that 
need watching here: first, remember 
that the 'message has arrived signal' 
actually means that one or more 
messages have arrived, so a loop 
arrangement is needed which can 
handle any number of messages - 
not just one. Secondly, these 
messages will continue to arrive for 
as long as the program runs, so 
another loop arrangement (an outer 
loop) is needed which continues to 
look for messages until such time as 
the program terminates. 

Putting all of these ideas together 
results in a piece of code which, if 
you've ever examined the demo 
programs which I write for Amiga 
Shopper's sister magazine, Amiga 
Format (come on, surely someone 
must look at the source code listings), 
you'll already have seen many times 
before. For those who haven't, the 
code fragment is printed below. Q) 



/* We enter this code after setting up our window and gadgets. 
At this point, we are simply waiting for the user to do 
something that's interesting - i.e. select a gadget or 
terminate the program by closing the window. */ 



it e- FALSE; 
do { 

Wait ( l«g_window_p -> UserPort -> mp_SigBit); 
mesoage=GetMsg(g window p -> UserPort); 
do{ 

class - message -> Class; 
object * message -> IAddress; 
ReplyMsg (message) ; 

if (class-oCLOSEWINDOW) (message -NULL; 
terminate«TRUE; } 
else < 

switch (class) 

( 

case GADGBTUP: gadget_activity(object) ; break; 
default: do_nothing(); break; 

> 

message - GetMsg (g_window_p ->UserPort); 

> 

) while (message) ; 
)while( I terminate) ; 

/* We reach here after the user has hit the CLOSEWINDOW gadget 
and at this time do whatever is necessary to terminate the 
program */ 

- 

This C code fragment waits for messages to arrive from Intuition, then 
handles them as required by the program. Remember that ft must be 
capable of accepting and handling multiple messages - not just one. 



80 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1 991 



PROGRAMMING 




JARGO 
BUSTING 

ADDRESS: A value used to identify 
a memory location. 

IXK: The part of the Amiga's 

operating system which 
handles multi-tasking, 
I/O (input/ output) and 
other system house- 
keeping tasks. 

FUNCTION: The C language's name 
for a subroutine. 

IDCMP: An acronym (well 

nearly) for Intuition 
Direct Communications 
Port, 

MULTI-WINDOW: A screen display 
system capable of 
supporting more than 
one window at once. 
Intuition contains all the 
system routines for 
handling the Amiga's 
windowing facilities. 

POLL; Waning for an event to 

happen by using a loop 
which just keeps 
looking for, and testing, 
some condition until 
that condition occurs. 
Polling techniques 
could, for example, be 
used to monitor 
keyboard activity. The 
advantage of polling is 
that the programming is 
simple. The 
disadvantage is that 
this technique ties the 
processor up 
unnecessarily - whilst a 
poll loop is executing 
the processor can't do 
anything elsel 

STRUCT: A C keyword used to 
define C structures. 

STRUCTURE: A complex variable 
supported by the C 
programming 
longuoge. Structures 
can contain any number 
of different variable 
types* 

USER INTERFACE: The port of the 
computer system with 
which the user 
communicates. The 
Amiga's user interface 
has both the WIMP 
(Window, kon Menu, 
Pointer) style and the 
C LI /Shell window 
command line interfaces 
available. 

VARIABLE TYPE: Just like Bosk , 

the C language supports 
the idea of different 
variable types. With C, 
however, this is taken 
further, because users 
can build their own type 
definitions out of the 
inbuilt int (integer), char 
(character), float (single 
precision floating point) 
and double (double 
precision Hooting point) 
types which C provides. 
The ULONG, SHORT, 
USHORT, and APT* 
types that you'll see 
references to in the 
IntuiMessoge structure 
are variable types 
which are specific to 
Amiga programming. 






IDCMP Flag Definitions 



Standard names for the IDCMP flags are available 
in C header files. They should always be used in 
preference to numeric values or non-standard 
names. The flags are used to both select which 
types of messages you wish to receive and to 
distinguish between the various types of message 
that may arrive at your message port. The 
definitions fall into six categories and the place to 
look for full details is the Addison Wesley Libraries 
and Devices RKM manual. Here, however, are 
some brief details to get you going... 

Window Flags 

ACTIVEWINDOW You'll get a message with this 
flag set when the window becomes active. 

IN ACTIVEWINDOW This provides you with a 
message when your window becomes inactive. 

NEWSIZE This is a message sent when an 
application's program window is resized. 

REFRESHWINDOW You will be told when your 
window needs refreshing with this flag. 

SIZEVERIFY Intuition will check with your program 
when a user tries to resize a window, and will not 
allow the event to occur until the program says that 
it's safe to do so. 

Gadget flags 

GADGETUP When the user releases the left 
mouse button with the pointer over a gadget that 
has the RELVERIFY flag set, the program will 
receive a message of this class. 

GADGETDOWN If the gadget was created with 
the GADGIMMEDIATE flag set, then this message 
is sent when the gadget is selected. 

CLOSEWINDOW If you have a close gadget in 
your window, then setting this flag will provide you 
with a message telling you when the gadget has 
been selected. Intuition doesn't close anything: it 
leaves that up to the program. 

Mouse Flags 

MOUSEBUTTONS This causes reports about 
mouse button events to be passed providing that 
they do not mean anything to Intuition. The Code 
field of the message tells you which button was 
pressed or released, and it will contain one of the 
following four flags: SELECTUP, SELECTDOWN, 
MENUUP or MENUDOWN. 

MOUSEMOVE If the window, or a gadget within 
the window, is reporting mouse events, then this 
flag ensures that you receive the XY co-ordinate 
messages of the mouse's position as it moves. 



DELTAMOVE With this flag set, the mouse 
movement is reported as coordinate changes 
rather than as absolute values. 

Menu Flags 

MENUPICK You will get a message of this type if 
the user has pressed the menu button. If an item 
was selected then the menu number will be in the 
Code field. If no selection was made, this field will 
be set to MENUNULL 

MENUVERIFY This is a message sent as part of a 
particular verification mode which allows programs 
to temporarily halt or cancel menu operations. 

Requester Flags 

REQCLEAR If this flag i b set, then your program 
will receive a message when a requester is cleared 
from a window. 

REQSET Setting this flag will get you a message 
the moment a requester opens in your window. 

REQVERIFY If this flag is set, Intuition will ask your 
program if it is OK to put a requester up in your 
window. Even system requesters will be blocked 
until your program replies to the message - so 
make sure that your program checks for it. 

Miscellaneous Flags 

DISKINSERTED If this flag is set, you will be told 
about disks being inserted (or removed). 

DISKREMOVED Again, you will be told about 
disks being inserted or removed. Two flags are 
needed because when these events happen you 
need to know which one has occurred. 

NEWPREFS With this flag set, your program will 
be told if the user makes any changes to the 
Preferences settings. 

INTUITICKS This gives you timer events when your 
window is active. The messages arrive about ten 
times a second. INTUITICK messages do not queue 
up like other messages, because the moment 
Intuition realizes that you haven't replied to a timer 
message it will stop sending them. 

RAWKEY This provides messages containing raw 
key codes from the keyboard. The data is extracted 
from the Code field but, by using the Qualifier 
field, you can get extra information about whether 
the Shift key, Control key and so on have been 
pressed in conjunction with the key. 

VANILLAKEY This gives you the key code 
information after it been processed using the 
Keyboard device's current character keymap. 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1 991 



AMOS 





"Welcome to the AMOS column: the 
place where, every month, you can find 
in-depth tutorials and lots of hints and 
tips for use with Europress Software's 
AMOS Basic interpreter. So get your 
brains in gear for a useful tutorial on 
taking control of this great language." 

Phil 'Snouty' South 



Welcome back to the 
world of AMOS, 
where everyone can 
unleash the real 
power of their Amiga with simple 
instructions from the Basic command 
set. AMOS is a strange beast, but a 
very flexible one, and this is where 
you can find out what's new with this 

exciting programming language. 

Get the ball rolling 

I've recently found out a couple of 
things I didn't know about AMOS, 
both involving the mouse. 

The first thing was about the use 
of the right mouse button, and there 
are two interesting uses for this. On 
the file requester I couldn't Figure out 
how to get to another disk drive or 
device without waiting till the thing 
had read the disk ond after having to 
laboriously type the name in. Now 
you may just laugh and tell me you 




Madness Week's menu selector 
looks rather familiar nest pas? 

knew how to get round this all along, 
and if you do then bully for you. But 
if you have the same problem as I 
did, here is the answer. 

If you click the right mouse button 
in an AMOS requester, a list of 
current devices appears - drives, 
RAM- etc. Click on the one you want 
and Bob is very much your uncle. 
Simple really, but I never actually 
saw this in the manual. 



The reason I didn't see it is also 
simple - it's not actually there. Let's 
see ... yup, there's mention of 
something familiar on page 15. 

In the paragraph about changing 
the current drive it says something 
about a row of burtons for each 
drive. Wrong. The programmers must 
have changed their minds because, 
in order to bring up the selections, 
you must press the right button. Then, 
once you've selected your disk and 
directory, simply click on the SetDir 
button and this directory will pop up 
every time. 

It's so simple even my pel mouse 
could do it. (OK, so his paws are too 
small to move the Amiga mouse, but 
you get the gist.) 

The second way of using the 
right button is for selecting text in the 
program. In a normal word 
processing or text editing program, 
you can use the left mouse button to 
stroke a highlight around the text you 
want to mark, then cut, paste and 
copy it around the current and other 
documents. In AMOS the right button 
performs this function. 

OK folks, let's give it a go - load 
a program, then put the pointer on 
the first character of the listing Press 
the right button and move the mouse 
down. You've just selected a block 
thai can be cut and pasted, and even 
saved off as ASCII text using the 
Block Menu's ASCII Save option. 
Hoorahl It's quite staggering what 
you can do when you put your 
mouse to it. 



Demo corner 



Madness Week by Syntex is the 
latest demo to come from France, 
and it's a real killer. 

It's a megademo, just like the big 
demos from the assembly coders that 
you find in the public domain, and it 
covers two disks with the very best in 
AMOS sound and graphics. 

The program has a intro, like all 
demos, and a chooser which allows 




This month Phil South looks into 
object control with the mouse and 
the joystick. Plus a look at the 
first ever AMOS meaademo 



you to use the joystick to choose 
which pari of the demo you want to 
see. As well as a large logo 
whizzing around the screen and all 
that kind of stuff, there's also a 
stunning example of how to program 
copper plasma using AMOS. Plasma 
is a very smooth shaded and rippling 
colour graphics effect, and AMOS is 
the only way you can get it outside of 
C or assembler - at least at this kind 
of speed. A lovely effect and one 
well worth seeing. The program is 
hard lo get into and read, because 
it's too large to unfold the procedures 
I think, but the effect is charming. As 
soon as I've taken the thing apart, I'll 
let you know how it's done. In the 
meantime, get hold of a copy of the 
demo and check it out. I'm sure you 
won't be at all disappointed. 
You can get the two-disk 
Madness Week demo from the 
AMOS PD Library at £2.50 per disk, 
but don't forget that you'll need 1 Mb 
of RAM to run it. Just ask for disk 
numbers 207 and 208, and Sandra 
will know what you want. 



Moving Experience 



You interact with AMOS programs 
using the keyboard, mouse and 
joystick ond, although the keyboard 
is easy (if you know Basic), getting 
the computer to understand what you 
want using the mouse and keyboard 
is harder to master. Until now that is. 

Hide is the first command that 
springs to mind. This command 
actually hides the mouse pointer. The 
reasons you would want to do this 
are manifold, but mostly it's to free 
the screen for a stonking good 
picture and to avoid giving the user 
the distraction of wanting to click on 
something. To get the pointer back 
afterwards, you simply need to do a 
Show command. 

So, a typicol structure would go 
like this: 

Screen Open 0,6-; 6, 4, Hi res 

Load Iff "hires_picr_ure_here" 
:ie 

Wait Key 

Show 



BEGINNERS 

TART HERE 



What is AMOS? 

AMOS is powerful version of the 
Basic programming language with 
a lot of features for sound and 
graphics built in. All you have to do 
is create sound samples and musk 
scores using a tracker program 
(such as ME D or Soundtrocker), and 
graphics in a paint program (such 
as DPaint or DigiPaint), and AMOS 
enables you to create professional- 
looking programs. 

What sort of things can I 
program in AMOS? 

Anything, from a demo with 
moving copper bars, scrolling 
messages and bouncing bob 
graphics, to a game, or a serious 
program such as a database. 

Is it difficult to learn ? 

Basic stands for Beginners All- 
purpose Symbolic Instruction Code, 
and it is very easy to learn as most 
of the commands are English. 
PRINT means write words on the 
screen, INPUT gets input from the 
keyboard and WAIT KEY waits for 
a key to be pressed. Easy. 

Can programs be run without 
the main AMOS program so I 
can give them away to 
friends, or release them in the 
public domain ? 

AMOS has a companion program 
for this called RAMOS, which 
enables programs written in AMOS 
to be put on a self-booting disk for 
distribution without the main 
program. Everything you put into 
the program can be reproduced by 
RAMOS, so yes you will be able to 
create programs and demos to give 
away or sell. 



82 



AMIQA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1 99 1 



AMOS 



(Don't forget that you need to use a 
Screen Open before you con load an 
IFF picture. If you don't, you'll get a 
'Can't fit the picture in the screen'- 
type message.] 

It's a good thing to Hide your 
pointer on main title pictures and 
print a 'Press Any Key' prompt on the 
picture to make people trigger the 
Wait Key command to carry on. 

The next mouse command is 
Change Mouse. This allows you to 
alter the shape of the mouse pointer 
to a preset design, or even one of 
your own. You can otherwise do this 
in 'system-configuration' and load it 
on to your RAMOS disk, but Change 
Mouse is an elegant way to do the 
same thing from within AMOS. 

The way you use this handy 
command is like this: 

Change Mouse 1 

where the 1 could be either 1 , 2 or 
3. The preset pointer shapes ore 

1 for a normal pointer 

2 for a crosshair 

3 for a mouse clock 

And if you choose a 4, then the 
mouse pointer will be taken from 
your sprite bank. 

It's not actually that simple 
though, as the sprite number is 
derived by subtracting 3 from the 
number given, so: 

Change Mouse 4 

gives you sprite 1 of the current 
bank, while: 
Change Mouse 5 

gives you sprite 2, and so on. 

AMOS is really good at 
simplifying the reading of hardware. 
So for reading, if a mouse burton has 
been pressed, you just use either the 
Mouse Key or Mouse Click 
commands. And to set or read the 
position of the mouse pointer on 
screen you can use the much more 
simple X Mouse or Y Mouse 
instructions. (Much more simple than 

Basic ordinaire, that is.) And finally, 
you can limit the mouse to certain 
areas of the screen with the Limit 
Mouse command. Here is a short 
program with examples of these 
commands for you to try: 

Print "Mouse pointer on" 

Wait Key 

Hide 

CIS 

Print "Mouse pointer off" 

wait Key 

Show 

Cls 

Change Mouse 3 

Print "Mouse back again, but altered* 

Print 'Move mouse and press button' 

Cls 

Proc CZECH 



End 

Procedure CZECH 

Do 

Home 

XI =X Mouse : Y1=Y Mouse 

Print "Mouse location = ";X1,Y1 

K=Mouse Key 

:; K=0 Then KS="None" 

If K=l Then K$="Left" 

If K=2 Then KS= "Right" 

Print "House key pressed = *;KS 

Loop 

End Proc 

The joystick, is reod in o similar no- 
nonsense way. The Joy command 
returns a figure telling you what state 
the joystick is in. Take a look at the 
segment of code immediately below: 



Although this requires you to set up 
DIM statements, you can read 
joystick port 1 and pass the 
information to a sprite (or in this case 
a Bob) move command to shift the 
thing around the screen. 
As well as using the 
comprehensive Joy command, you 
can look at each direction singly with 
the Jup, Jdown, Jleft and Jright 
commands, along with Fire to check 
the mouse button: 

DO 

If Jleft(l) 'men Prir.- ■:• :" 
It Jright U) Then Pr -Right" 
If JupU) Then Print "Up" 
If Jdown (1) Then Print "Down" 
Pire(l) Then Print "==FIRE!==" 

Loop 



Rem Joystick demo code 

Xl=160 : Yl=100 : Rem sets the starting position of object 

IMAGE= 1 : Rem Sets image used by object 

Do 

Bob 1, XI, Yl, IMAGE : Rem move bob 

Rem Read joystick and get new coordinates 

J=Joy(l) and 15 : Pdd X1,DX(J),10 To 300 : AcU Y1,EV(J),10 To 190 

Exit If Joy(l)>15 : Rem test fire button 

LOOp 



Time to go 

In the next issue I'll be doing a 
beginners' tutorial on AMAL - one of 
the more powerful aspects of AMOS 
- and the month after that I'll talk 
about how to pass this control 
information to a sprite, then you'll be 
able to animate and shift stuff around 
the screen to your heart's content. In 
the meantime, Abyssinia. Q) 

ooooooooo 

Shopping List 

AMOS - The Creator £49.99 

by Europress Software 

available from: 

Europress soles and distribution 

FREEPOST, Ellesmere Port, 

South Wirral L65 3EB 

n 051-357 1275 

All AMOS PD software (an be obtained 
from: 

AMOS PD Library 

25 Park Road, 
Wigan WN6 7AA 
« 0942 495261 




Terrific tips for AMOS 



Disk magazine buyers might like to know that there 
is an excellent regular feature on AMOS in 
Newsflash, produced by Martyn Brown of 17 Bit . 
The AMOS features are little programs that Martyn 
has written and are saved in both AMOS and ASCII 
format, so you can either load them up and run 'em, 
or you can Merge ASCII on them to incorporate the 
code in your own programs. Here is a little taster 
from Newsflash 16 to create those nice VU meter 
bars you see in most assembly code demos: 



Every month I will be printing hints and tips on 
AMOS from my own sources and from you, the 
readers. If you have any hints and tips (preferably 
accompanied by mini listings) you want to send me, 
whack them on paper or a disk and send them to: 
Phil South, AMOS action, Amiga Shopper, 30 
Monmouth Street, Bath BA1 2BW. Or you can e-mail 
me on CIX (snoutydcix.co.uk), Micronet 
(219997854), Telecom Gold (74:MIK2077) or The 
Direct Connection (uadl 13S@dircon.co.uk). 

• vu-BARS by Spadge 



' LOAD AN -ABK MUSIC FILE! I I 

Cla 
Muaic 1 

ST: Show On : Cla 
Cl-0 : C2-0 : C3-0 
View 
Goflub RB 
Do 

Vl«Int(Vumeter(0)/2) 
If V1>C1 Then CI -VI 
If V1<C1 and C1>0 Then Dec CI 
If V2>C2 Then C2-V2 
If V2<C2 and C2>0 Then Dec C2 
If V3>C3 Then C3-V3 
If V3<C3 and C3>0 Then Dec C3 
If V4>C4 Then C4-V4 
If V4<C4 and C4>0 Then Dec C4 

Bob 1,160, 180, CI : Bob 2, 170, 160, C2 : Bob 3,180, 180, C3 : Bob 4, 190, 180, C4 i Walt Vbl 
Loop 
RB: 
Rnm 



Screen Open 0, 400, 256, 2, LORES : Cla I Palette 0,$FP 
C4-0 



V2-Int(Vumeter{l)/2) : V3-Int(Vumeter{2)/2) : V4-Int (Vumeter(3)/2 



Set Rainbow 0,1,35,"", 



mh n « 



Rainbow 0,0,220,35 : Colour Back : Restore RDATA7 



Fur Cro To 34 : Read CVA : Rain(0,C)-CVA 

Next C : View : Return 

RDATA7: 

Data $0,$0,$0,$544,$655,$766,$877,S98e,$A99,$BAA,$CBB,$DCC,$EDD,$FED,$FEC,$FEB 

Data SPEA,SPE9.SPE8,SPE7,SFD6,SFC5,SFA3,SF92,SF81,SF70,SE60,SD50,SC40.SB30.SA20,S910 

Data $800,$700,$600,$0,$0,$0,$0,$0 



, 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1 O0 1 



83 



i 

< 



w7 



UJ 

O- 

o 

I 

3 



84 



5>®ST GG(3Sir 

AU. PHCM IMOUDC VAT t DC LM RY TO YOUR DOORffJ 




irton Wdw (Cal Animator) 14 90 

Deluxe Video III 59 00 

AegiiAmmig-: 50.09 

Broadcast Titter 2 174.00 

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IScaia 174 00 

Text Professional BO M 

ITV Show 2 40.00 

Vtdeotitler 1 5 3D 69 99 
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ScribWo Platinum 39 99 

Kindwords 2 30 90 

Pwp«l 00.00 

Eicdtence 2 60 00 

ProtwM.2 74 99 

Protect 5 100.90 

ProWnte3.1 00 00 

Word Perfect 4 1 15000 

Word Perfect Library 79 09 
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Jvanrage 79 00 

DG Calc 28 .00 
AMOUR 

htotile 34 00 

Soperoase Person* 2 60 00 

Superbase Professional 149 99 



Superbase Professional 4 200 00 

mfm*TB) twr/sssDB) 

The Wortts Platinum 50.00 

Gold Disk Office 100.00 

01? 

Pagesetter 2.0 52.00 

Pro Page 2 10000 

Pro Draw 2 00 00 

Outline fonts 00.00 

Gold Disk Fonts 1-4 34 99 

Structured dtp art 30 00 

klips 70.99 

Ptoclips 17 90 

Oekjxe Print II 34.00 

CAD 

X-CAD Desoner 74 00 

X- CAD Professional 150.00 

Aegis Draw 2000 00.00 

ACCOUNTS 

Home Accounts 77 00 

CashbooWRnaf Accounts 44.00 

Personal Tax Planner 20 00 

Personal finance Manager 21.00 

SmaH Business Accounts Cash 50.00 

Small Business Accounts Xtn 70.00 

OMPHICS 

Deluxe Paint 3 54 00 

Photon Pant 6 99 



Detune Photolab 


"4T0T 


Moviesetter 


K<& 


Real Things Bi nil 


24.00 


Real Things Humans 


24 99 


Real Thmgs Horses 


10.00 


Profils 


24 99 


Rcnaai 


37 00 


Butcher 


27 09 


The Art Department 


49 99 


The Art Department Pro. 


134 99 


Kara Aram Fonts 1 


20 00 


Kara Aram Fonts 2 


20 00 


Kara Anim Fonts 3 


20 00 


Kara Fonts Headlines 1 


40.00 


Kara Fonts Headlines 2 


44 00 


Kara Fonts Sub Headlines 


44 09 


ao MooiLiMQ « Hmommo 


Sculpt 3DXL 


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18000 


349.09 


Real 3D Beginners 


64.00 


Real 30 Professional 


234 99 


Peai 3D Turbo 


299 99 


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35 90 


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Lattice C 


49 99 
21999 


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Music X Junior 74.00 
Tiger Cub mcl. Interface-leads 79 99 
Bars & Pipes Professional 15990 

mcaiMiious 

BAD Disk Optimise* 34 09 

Cross Dos 4 29 90 

Dos 2 Dos 3000 

Disk Master 30.00 

Face! I 24.09 

GB Route 34 99 

ton Paint 999 

Quarterback Hard Dish Backup 49.00 

Quarterback Toots 59 09 
Supeiback Hard Disk Backup 35.00 
Byfe'N'Back Hard Dim Backup 16.00 

EDUCATIONAL 

Three Bears 16 49 

Donald's Alphabet 17 00 

Dnotaur Discovery Kit 17 00 

Distant Suns 32 90 

Deep sky Objects 14 90 

Skymap Expansion 14.09 

first Letters & Words 17 OO 

Fun School II (2-6 14 40 

Fun School II 6-6) 14 40 

Fun School II (Over 8s) 17 00 

Fun School III (Under 5s) 17 00 

Fun School III 5-7) 17 00 

Fun School III (Over 7t) 17.00 

Goofy"* Railway 17 00 

Hooray for Henrietta 17 00 

Kid Talk 17 00 
.KM* Type 



RtsTpeaTTTCne^^^^ 

Lets Spel at the Shops 

Mickey's Runaway Zoo 1 7 00 

Math Talk Fractions . 17 99 

Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing 20 40 

Pu;fleBooklt 1449 

PuiUe Storybook 17 00 

Smoothtalker 17. 00 

Spellbook 14 W 

Weather Watcher 17.9Q 

HARDWARE 

Amiga 500 Basic 310 

A5O0 Screen Gems 1Mbyte 370 

A150O Including Monitor MB 

A1500 No Monitor 640 

A500 2C#/b Hard Drive 270 
A50O 20Mb H/0flve»2Mb RAM 350 

Irumpcard 500 40Mb H/Drtvi 539 
Tnjmpcard 2000 40Mb H/Dhve 519 

3 5' External Floppy Drive 55 

5t2k Ram Expansion no dock 25 

5 l?k Ram Expansion* dock 20 

15 Mb Ram Expansion 60 



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50 Blank Disks 
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Panasonic 4420 Laser 
Panasonic 4420 1Mb Upgrade 



625 

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A M I G A D O S 




Mark Smiddy puts on his surgeon's 
explains how to re-constitute those 



gown and 

dead disks 



I&S. 



BEGINNERS 
TART HERE 



What does formatting do? 

Put simply, the process of 
formatting a disk prepares it for 
use with a specific computer. It 
divides the disk into hundreds of 
numbered segments called 
sectors, which are used to store 
the data. Disks are divided up to 
make more efficient use of the 
space available and maintain a 
reasonable speed. 

The process takes place in 
two distinct phases on the 
Amiga: first, each track is 
divided into 1 1 sectors, each 
capable of storing 512 bytes of 
information. This gives 1 760 
sectors on a disk, which makes 
880K of space available. Next, 
during the initialising phase, the 
disk is prepared for AmigaDOS. 
This process reserves four sectors 
for private system use: two for 
the boot sectors used by boot 
disks, one for the root block as 
used by the root directory and 
one for the bitmap - a map of 
free sectors. The bitmap is 
similar to the FAT (File Allocation 
Table) found in other versions of 
DOS ( MS-DOS etc) but is for 

more efficient. 

What does NDOS mean? 

It refers to a disk that has been 
formatted by the Amiga, but has 
not been initialised for use with 




isks go wrong - this is a 
fact of life. However, 
mistakes can be made 
and there are times when 
a copy of a file is either locked up in 
an archive somewhere or, perish the 
thought, a unique original. The latter 
can happen when the Amiga, for 
reasons known only to itself (or the 
local electricity board), decides to 
crash during a save operation. You 
should use DISKDOCTOR as soon as 
a disk starts to show any signs of 
getting crabby. A typical example 
would be a requester stating: 

KEY <nn> invalid, disk 
structure corrupt, use 
diskdoctor to correct it. 

Although much maligned by some, 
AmigaDOS offers a simple command 
that can even salvage disks when 
they have been partially formatted - 
ie, with FORMAT'S QUICK option. 
The syntax could not be simpler: 

_>d:skdcc: ifO: t: 

When DISKDOCTOR completes, and 
it can take quite some time, it will ask 
you to copy files to another disk and 
reformat this one. Take the advice. 

Last ditch doctor 

Before reading further, a few 
cautions: DISKDOCTOR should only 
be used as a last resort - it is meant 
for single drive machines and 
therefore cannot take advantage of a 
second drive. This implies it has to 
work on the broken disk. And if 
anything should happen, poofl There 
are some more effective disk salvage 
utilities around for those lucky 
enough to own two drives. One of 
the best, Dave Haynie's excellent 
DISKSALV, is available from most 
good public domain libraries. 

Also, DISKDOCTOR should be 
used with extreme caution on FFS 
disks. For most users, this disk type 
will be a hard disk and it is vital to 
ensure the DOSTYPE keyword in the 
Mountlist (in the DEVS: directory) is 



correctly set to 0x444F5301 (that's 
ASCII for DOS 1). 

Never use the DISKDOCTOR on 
a hard disk or other FFS disk unless 
you have checked the DOSTYPE. The 
structure of the data blocks is 
different under FFS - DISKDOCTOR 
will think they are bad blocks and 
probably delete them. 



"DISKDOCTOR is the AmigaDOS 
equivalent of an ambulance. I'M 
show you how to call it so it gets 
there in time." 

Mark Smiddy 



• ATTENTION: Some file in 
directory <name> is 
unreadable and has been 
deleted. 

A file in sub-directory <name> has 
been so totally corrupted that it is 
now totally unreadable and even 
DISKDOCTOR can't find out what it 
was called. Files in this state can't be 



J 



MfVVVVVVVVVVVNAnMn/WVVVVVS/WWtftfWMnAfV 



!/VVVV\AnWVWtfV\AflAAAAAAAAA*VVVVlJ 



i.sys:> 
i.SYS:> 
l.SYS:> 
i.sys:> dir dfe: 

l.SYS:> diskdoctor df8: 

Disk Doctor VI. 3. 5 

Insert disk to be corrected and press RETURN 

Hard error Track 63 Surface I 

Hard error Track 64 Surface 1 

Hard error Track 71 Surface 1 

Reading cylinder 79 

Operation complete 

You should. copy files required to a new disk and refor 

l.SYS:> 
l.SYS:> 
i.sys:> 
i.sys:> 
l.SYS:> 
l . sys : > 
l . sys : > 



A familiar doctor's note for those of you suffering from floppy disk 
failure - our office disk lost three tracks when we attacked it with a Biro. 



The following errors and 
messages may be generated by 
DISKDOCTOR. These are arranged 
in alphabetical order for quick 



"Some game disks 

show up as 
NDOS - do not try 
to recover them." 



reference. You may, therefore, have 
to read the section more than once to 
grasp the meaning of some errors. 
Keep this list handy as you might 
need it someday. 



salvaged and are therefore 
discarded by the program. 

• Block zero failed to format 
- Sorry! 

In very dire circumstances track 
may fail to format, which means 
you've got a seriously damaged disk. 
If this happens, the disk is probably 
beyond saving (by DISKDOCTOR at 
any rate). Block zero contains vital 
information used by AmigaDOS, 
such as the disk type. If this cannot 
be re-constituted, the disk will be 
unreadable. DISKDOCTOR 
terminates if this error occurs. If this 
happens, test format a blank disk on 
the same drive to make sure the drive 
or hardware is not at fault before 
trying on another drive. 

continued on page 86 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1991 



85 



AMIGADOS 



<oitinued from pog« 85 

• Cannot write root block - 
Sorry! 

This is a fatal error as far as 
DISKDOCTOR is concerned - it 
cannot recreate the disks root block, 
from which all other files are found. 
Like the block zero formatting error 
(above) this does not spell total doom 
if you have DISKSALV or something 
similar. See note for: Block zero 
failed to format - Sorry! 

• Device <name> not found 

The device <name> could not be 
found or does not exist. This is 
usually caused by a typo. Are you 
sure that you have entered the device 
name correctly? 



Got a problem John? 

If you are bogged down with 
any aspect of AmigaDOS 
whatsoever, drop a line detailing 
your conundrum to: Mark 
Smiddy, Amiga Shopper, 30 
Monmouth Street, Bath BA1 
2BW. Ill do my best to lose it on 
my desk - er, figure out an 
answer. Sorry, no personal 
correspondence can be entered 
into. (Thanks for the Roses, 
Joyce.) Desperate people, with 
no regard for telephone bills, can 
EMail me on CIX "SMIDOID" or 
find me lurking in the Amiga 
Shopper conference. 



• Disk Doctor cannot be run 
in the background 

DISKDOCTOR is an interactive 
command and running it in the 
background would be silly. If you 
must multi-task it, open another Shell 
window or use the script below. 

• Disk must be write enabled 

DISKDOCTOR wants to write all over 
the source disk - that's the way it 
works. First make sure you are 
doctoring the right disk, then close 
the write enable shutter. 

• Disk type mismatch - 
formatting block zero 

The disk ID is something AmigaDOS 
doesn't recognise or is not what it is 
supposed to be. DISKDOCTOR will 
attempt to salvage the disk from 
scratch. This sort of damage is typical 
of virus infection. 

• Delete corrupt files in dir 

<name>? 
DISKDOCTOR has found some 
dodgy files in the sub-directory 
<nome>. You have the chance to 
leave them untouched or get rid of 



them. Command files should be 
discarded - it is unlikely they will 
work again. Data (text, picture and 
sound) files may be recoverable and 
can be left for later examination. You 
must enter Y or N at this prompt to 
allow DiskDoctor to continue. If 
<name> is a command directory, 
such as C, System, DEVS and so on, 
these files must be discarded. 

• Error: Unable to access disk 

This is just another way of saying: 
"Excuse me, but you forgot to put a 
disk in - just thought you'd like to 
know ..." 

• Failed to read key <nn> 

Block <nn> could not be read - this 
is probably due to a hard error on 
the disk detected during the scan. 

• Failed to rewrite key <nn> 

Block <nn> could not be rewritten to 
the disk. The most likely cause is a 
physical error on the disk. 

• Hard error track <nn> 

Track <nn> appears to be physically 
damaged in some way. Recovery 
from this is not generally possible in 
DISKDOCTOR. Data stored in the 
affected block is lost. 

• Inserting dir <name> 
Sub-directory <nome> has been 
salvaged and is now being placed in 
the root directory. 

• Inserting file <name> 

File <name> has been recovered and 
is now being placed in the root 
directory. This happens when the sub- 
directory that <name> belonged to 
has been destroyed by an error 

• Key <nn> of <name> is out 
of range 

The block <nn> belonging to file 
<name> exceeds the ronge allowed 
for the device. 

For instance, there are 1760 
blocks on a floppy disk and every 
single block must point to one of 



those. This pointer error may be 
partially recoverable if DISKDOCTOR 
can find some other fragments of the 
some file. 

• Key <nn> is unreadable 

The block could not be read - this 
block probably lives in a sector with 
a hard error. 

• Not enough memory 

DISKDOCTOR does not have enough 
memory to operate. In the unlikely 
event of this happening, shut down 
as many processes as possible or try 

81175 

AmigaDOS offers the best data 
security (based on sector 
redundancy) of any home 
computer, but all at the expense 
of operational speed. 

& BOBS 

re-booting the machine. A curious 
bug in the program also causes this 
error when an invalid device name is 
specified: PAR:, SER:, etc. 

• Now copy files to a new 
disk and reformat this disk 

Do it. This is DISKDOCTOR's 
handshake. It has done all it can to 
save the patient and now leaves you 
in charge of picking up the bits and 
salvaging what you can. 

• Parent key of <nn> is <yy> 

which is invalid 
The block <nn> cannot be connected 
to the list because its parent block 
<yy> has been irreparably damaged 
or its pointer is outside the range 
allowable for the device in question. 

• Replacing dir <name> 

The sub-directory <name> has been 
unaffected by any errors present on 
the disk and it is being reinstated 
where it was. 



JARGO 




BUSTING 



Block: In general terms, a sector on the disk. Under AmigaDOS there are several 
different block types - determined by what information is stored there. All 
blocks are made from 512-byte sectors although only 488 bytes of user 
data is stored in the data blocks in the OFS* Do not get the two confused* 
More info on this later in the series. 

FFS: Fast Filing System. A more recent version of OFS. The main difference is that 
SI 2 bytes of information arm stored in most data blocks and the blocks ore 
usually contiguous on the disk * not spread around as is typical in the earlier 
system. The advantage is mainly speed and the slightly more efficient use of 
available store. Data redundancy suffers badly as a result. A damaged FFS 
disk is inherently more difficult to recover than one formatted using OFS. 

Key: DISKDOCTOR's name for a block. May be used to indicate that the 

DISKDOCTOR is not sure what type of block is being scanned. Also, something 
used to open locks. 

OFS: Old Filing System. The original system used by AmigaDOS to store 

information on disks. Slow and cranky, its best feature is a high degree of 
data redundancy characterised typically by the way DISKDOCTOR can 
salvage disks. 



continued from poge 85 

i 
i 

AmigaDOS. Such 
W disks cannot be 
used by AmigaDOS, 
although DISKDOCTOR can 
recover them if they were 
originally AmigaDOS disks. 
Some commercial (game) disks 
show up as NDOS - do not try to 
recover them. 

How much information can I 
fit on a disk? 

How long is a piece of string? 
(About as large as a table - ed.) 
The absolute limit is 878K, but 
some of that is used by 
AmigaDOS. For instance, every 
directory you create grabs 512 
bytes and every file created 
grabs at least 1 ,024 bytes. 488 
bytes of user data are stored in 
each data block but, because of 
the way AmigaDOS works, you 
cannot store 488 x 1,758 (873K) 
of data. The practical limit is 
closer to 800K. Look at it 
another way: if you created 
1 ,756 directories, you would 
have used 876K of store. It 
depends entirely on the type of 
data you are storing. Lots of little 
files take up more room than a 
single large one. 



e Replacing file <name> 

The file <name> has been unaffected 
by any errors on the disk and it is 
being reinstated to its original 
position. 

• Root track failed to format 
- Sorry I 

The root track (39, upper side) is 
where all the main directory 
information lives on o disk. 
DISKDOCTOR has tried to format it 
in an attempt to pick up the bits and 
failed. It can do no more. 

• Unable to read disk type 
formatting block zero 

Block zero contains such information 
as the boot sector and the disk type. 
If this information is missing because 
of a faulty track, DISKDOCTOR tries 
to format it and start over again. 

• Unable to open disk.device 

This should never happen. The 
trackdisk. device is part of Kickstart 
and must already be open for the 
disks to be working at all. 

• Unable to write root - 
formatting root track 

There is a read/write error at the 



86 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST ) 99 1 



AMI6ADOS 



root track so DISKDOCTOR is going 
to reformat it. The disk will be 
renamed Lazarus, demonstrating its 
author's curious sense of humour. 

• Unexpected end of file 

One of the files scanned turned out to 
be shorter than it should have been, 
caused by a length error in the file's 
heoder block. 

This is likely to be the result of a 
virus or, as is often the case, of a 
user's meddling. 



• Unknown device <name> 

You have supplied a device <name> 
which is not attached to the system. 
Probably caused by a typo. Check 
you have named the device correctly. 

• Warning: File <name> 
contains unreadable data 

A block or blocks belonging to 
<name> are on tracks affected by an 
error on the disk. 

This is fatal in most cases. Data 
files can usually be partial 



recovered when affected like this. 

• Warning: Loop detected at 
file <name> 

Some block pointers in <nome> have 
become circular. This means the 
parent block (for instance) points to 
the child and the child points straight 
back at its parent. An attempt to read 
the file would result in the disk head 
continually thrashing back and forth 
between the two. 

The probable cause is infection 



of the disk by a virus, or just plain 
old meddling. 

• <name> is not a device 

DISKDOCTOR recognises <name> 
but reckons it isn't a device. 

Post-scription 

Next month (unless you demand 
otherwise) I'll be looking at the 
startup-sequence in detail. Until then, 
take two aspirin, go to bed and call 
me in the morning. ^J 



AmigaDOS Masterclass 



DISKDOCTOR cannot normally be run in the background, 
but there is more than one way to skin a command. This 
solution uses two techniques: an alias and a script. 

The script will do the work of running DISKDOCTOR 
and the alias will run the script. Til show why in a 
moment. First though, the new commands: 

Add this line to the Shell-startup script (using ED S:Shell- 
startup). 

ALIAS DOCTOR NEWCLI WINDOW CON:0/3/500/100/DiSKDoc 
FROM SiDiskDoC 

and now create the DiskDoc script (using ED S:DiskDoc) - 
don't enter the line numbers as these are for reference. 



1 FAILAT 21 

2 DISKDOCTOR dfO: 

3 IF fail 

4 ASK "A serious error occurred! Press Return to 

5 ENDCLI 

6 ENDIF 

7 ASK "Press Return to exit" 

8 ENDCLI 



When you have defined these, just close the Shell and re- 
open it to ensure the alias is defined and type DOCTOR to 
get started. 

The alias breaks down like this: 
ALIAS: the command 
DOCTOR: the name of the alias 

And the clever bit: 

NEWCLI WINDOW CON:0/3/500/100/DiskDoc FROM S:DiskDoc 

This command performs several functions at once: 

• It opens a new CLI independent of the current Shell so 
DISKDOCTOR can be run from here. 

• It defines a new window for the CU. In practice this is 
tucked away in the top left of the screen with enough 
room for most messages to be displayed. The idea is to 
stop it getting in the way, but you can position it to your 
own liking. 

For the sake of beginners only, here's a brief 
explanation of what it means: 
WINDOW Device: X/Y/Width/Height/Name 






Device: CON: or NEWCON: 

X: X position. Range to 639 (Topaz 80) 

Y: Y position. Range to 255 (PAL) or to 199 (NTSC) 

Width: The width of the window in pixels - practical 

range 50 to 639 

Height: The height of the window in pixels - practical 

range 50 to 255 

• It starts DISKDOCTOR. The command is run from the 
script explained below using the FROM argument. 

The DiskDoc script breaks down as follows: 

1 Raises the failure level to 21 - beyond anything 
generated by AmigaDOS commands. In other words, this 
script cannot be stopped by any errors. 

2 Executes DISKDOCTOR and starts processing drive - 
you can change this to any drive you require. This script 
cannot take parameters because it is executed specially 
from the alias. 

3 Checks if DISKDOCTOR generated a serious error. (For 
instance, if there is no disk in the target drive - dfO: in 
this case.) Normally the script would grind to a halt at 
this point and leave you at the CLI prompt, but this has 
already been prevented at line 1. Since we have turned 
normal error handling off, we must deal with this, and 
that's what this does. If DISKDOCTOR exits normally, 
control skips to line 6, if not it passes to 4 ... 

4 ... where the error message is printed. Note: the ASK 
command is used here. It prints the error message and 
waits for the user to react, giving him or her time to 
study what has happened. 

5 This line shuts the CU down and closes its window. 
This is the reason for pausing at line 4 - if an error had 
occurred you might not get to see it. 

6 Terminates the IF. ..ENDIF construct opened at 3. This is 
used as a marker by the IF command but it must be 
present for the script to handle errors correctly. Control 
only gets here if DISKDOCTOR terminates normally. 

7 This behaves like line 4, giving the user the chance to 
react to any warnings or messages generated by 
DISKDOCTOR before the CLI window is finally closed ... 



8 ... h 



ere. 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1 99 1 



2 



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C O M M S 




BEGINNERS 
1TART HERE 



I hear people yattering on about 
comms, so what's it all about? 

Of all the diverse areas of 
computing, comms is probably 
the one most fraught with jargon. 
Its confusing terms can frighten 
even those who are otherwise 
computer literate. 

The basics of it are really very 
straightforward. The goal is to 
get one computer to talk to 
another over a telephone line. 
Because phones are built for 
people, and therefore expect 
voices, and whereas computers 
speak with ones and zeros, 
something is needed to interface 
the two. This is where modems 
come in. What a modem does is 
convert the computer's digital 
information into an analogue 
signal that the phone line can 
handle. Then a modem at the 
other end converts the signal 
back into computer speak. 

Isn't there some sort of code 
needed for modems to talk to 
each other? 

All sorts of protocols - codes used 
for transmitting data - have 
developed over the years, and 
this is usually where confusion 
arises. Protocols deal with things 
like the speed of transmission 
and whether error correction and 
data compression are to be used. 
Modems can be instructed 
manually to use certain protocols. 
This is done using what is known 

I on page 90 






tux 




Cliff Ramshav/ gets the phone 
lines buzzing as he reviews a 
pot-pourri of comms hardware 



"Getting into comms is a great 
way to turn computing into a 
sociable hobby. But you won't 
get very far without a modem, 
so let's have a look at what is 
on offer..." 

Cliff Ramshaw 




SupraModem 2400zi 



he 2400zi is one of many 
modems manufactured by 
Supra. The zi pari of the 
name denotes it is an internal 

model, designed for fitting to an 

Amiga 2000. An functionally 

equivalent external model is 

available for an extra £30 and will 

work with any computer (including an 

A500) by connecting 

to the serial port. Like 

most external models, 

the 2400 has a row of 

LED status indicators 

and to simulate this the 

2400zi is supplied 

with a program that 

opens a window on 

your monitor in which 

these indicators are 

displayed. 

The modem itself is 

a half-size card which 

fits into any of the 

2000's expansion 

slots. It is a well- 
designed board and 

installation is easy, 

aside from the nagging 

doubt that you are 

applying too much 

pressure pushing it into 
the expansion slot. 

A metal bracket to 
be fitted at the back of 
the Amiga is supplied. 
This is connected to the 
modem card by an 
American-style telephone lead. The 
bracket itself has two external jacks: 
one for connecting to the telephone 
socket in the wall; the other for the 
connection of o telephone in case it 
and the modem have to share the 

same line. However, as the jacks on 
the bracket are American, British 
Telecom telephone plugs will not fit 
them, thus the modem will not 
connect either. Suitable conversion 



leads can be bought for under £10 
to solve this problem, but most 
distributors of the SupraModem in 
this country should supply it with the 
correct lead. Make sure you check 
before you buy. 

One further word of warning: the 
modem is not BABT approved, so 
using it is not, strictly speaking, legal. 
It was explained to me that the 
reason for this is that Supra, quite 
sensibly, is not prepared to go to the 



back in July 1991 to let you, the 
readers, know the results. 

Once the Amiga's casing is back 
in place, the next step is to install the 
software. A disk comes with the 
package and automates most of the 
process. Clicking on an icon installs 
the modem device driver in the devs: 
directory of the relevant system disk. 
The next step depends on the 
communications software to be used. 
Most packages try to access modems 













Could Supra's 2400zi modem provide ail you A2000 owners with a cost- 
effective means of getting into comms at the basement level? Read on. 



expense of gaining approval for a 
standard which is likely to be 
obsolete by 1992. 

Baud on the 4th July 

So, using my hondy time machine, I 
zapped along to 1992 to test the 
modem out, ond now find myself 



through the serial. device driver. 
Because Supra's modems use their 
own driver, a program is supplied 
that will modify the comms package. 
All it does is search through the 
comms program and change any 
references to serial. device into 

* 

contmwd m page 90 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1991 



COMMS 




More features, a higher price and a sticker on the box saying Plus' 
reflect the more weighty specification of the Supra 2400zi Plus. 



(ontmved from poqe 89 

references to Supra's own driver. 

It is actually possible to install up 
to five Supra modems in the same 
A2000. If this is required, say for 
running a bulletin board, a small 
amount of device driver jiggery- 
pokery may be required - nothing 
too heavy, though. Once this is done, 
the modem is ready to use with a 
comms program of some description. 

Beyond the fact that it works, 
there is not a lot more to be said 
about the thing. It will operate at 
300, 1 ,200 and 2,400bps using the 
V.21 , V.22 and V.22bis protocols. 
These protocols are simply 
progressively speedier ways of 
squirting bits of information down the 
telephone line 

Baud in the USA 

The 2400zi can use the American 
Bell protocols, but that is not really 
important to those of us this side of 
the Atlantic. 

It can also store a telephone 
number and a user-defined 
configuration in non-volatile memory 
(so that it won't forget favourite set-up 
when you switch it off). Like just 
about every other modem, it 

understands the Hayes AT command 
set. This is a an awfully complicated 
way of telling the modem to dial a 
number, choose a transmission rate 

and so forth. The commands are 
generally between one and three 
characters long, making much use of 
non alpha-numeric symbols such as 
'%'. For this reason they can be very 
difficult to remember. Most comms 
software on the Amiga will do this 
sort of thing for you by means of 
menus, thank goodness. 

The modem is well documented 



installation of hardware and software 
is described very clearly. Baud rates, 
AT commands, the creation of custom 
configurations and other such 
otherwise confusing modem topics 
are explained. There is also a section 
on trouble shooting, in case any 
trouble should present itself as a 
target. A reference card is included 
with the package, giving a list of the 
AT commands along with brief 
descriptions of each - useful for those 
times when menus just aren't enough. 

All in all, the Supra 2400zi is a 
useful and solid piece of equipment 
and should be ideal for small-scale 
comms use. 



Checkout 

SupraMopem 2400zi 



Documentation 1 8/25 

The process of fitting the device is very 
clearly described, as is lis use It would have 
been nice to Have a little mofe information 
for the inquisitive The inclusion of an AT 
reference card is a nice idea 

Installation 9/15 

Straightforward enough for those unafraid of 
taking off the Amiga's lid, but a bit of a pain 
having to modify your communications 
software, especially if you want to use it 
with a standard modem afterwards. 

Facilities 12/30 

Nothing to write home about, but it certainly 
does the job. 



Price value 

Very reasonable 



.25/30 




Not a bad piece of kit for getting started in 
comms* Part exchange deals are available 
to those wanting to upgrade to the 2400zi 
Plus model 



SupraModem 2400zi Plus 



Looking very much like the 2400zi 
model, the 2400zi Plus is installed in 
exactly the same way as its little 
brother. This goes for software as 
well as hardware. The modem offers 
all of the 2400zi's features and more 
(which is why it has a 'Plus' at the 
end of its name). Instead of one, it 
can remember four telephone 
numbers, but the most important 
features are the addition of data 
compression and error correction. 
Unfortunately, for those already 
confused by modem terminology, 
these come in two distinct forms. 
The first is something called 
MNP, which stands for Microcom 
Networking Protocol. Microcom 
originally came up with the system, 
and it is now a widespread standard 
among modem manufacturers. MNP 
works on a number of levels, the 
common ones being level 4, which 
deals with error correction, and level 
5 which handles data compression. 

The 2400zi Plus also understands 
V.42 and V.42bis. These are 
protocols recommended by CCITT 
(Comite Consultatif International 
Telephonique et Telegraphique). 
V.42 is a error correction technique, 
into which MNP 4 has been 
incorporated. V.42bis is a data 
compression protocol which includes 
V.42 error correction as a subset. Its 
performance is typically one-and-o- 
half times better than that of MNP 5. 

Comming clean 

Error correction is very useful for 
transmission across noisy phone 
lines, especially at high transfer rates. 
It works by dividing the data into 
chunks. A mathematical operation is 
performed on the data of each of the 
chunks, resulting in a single number, 
called a checksum, which is sent with 
the chunk. At the receiving end, the 
same operation is performed on the 
chunk. If the result is different from 
the received checksum, then an error 
has occurred and the receiver asks 
the transmitter to send the offending 
data chunk again. 

Data compression saves time and 
money, as files can be shortened 
before transmission. Statistical 
methods are used to analyse the data 
for repetition of characters and 
strings of characters. 

A similar technique is used by 
Electronic Arts' Deluxe Paint art 
package to store pictures. V.42bis 
and MNP 5 compression are both 
performed by hardware, whereas 
archivers such as lharc or Zoo 
(commonly used to compress files 
before transmission) compress data 
by software. If MNP 5 is used to 
transmit an already compressed file, 
there will be no further compression. 

cMtiwed m pooe 9? 



continued from page 89 

as the AT command 
set, developed by a 
modem manufacturer 
called Hayes. As modems have 
grown more and more 
sophisticated, the command set 
has grown too, both in terms of 
sophistication and complexity. 

This is not so much of a 
problem as it seems because 
most modems are clever enough 
to sort out among themselves 
which protocols they want to use 
when talking to each other. 

So I've got a modem. What 
happens now? 

Having got a one, it's a simple 
matter of getting hold of some 
free comms software from one of 
the PD libraries, then you're 
away. You can send stuff to your 
friends in far away places, or join 
one of the increasingly popular 
bulletin board systems. These are 
usually free and provide a means 
of meeting and talking to new 
people. They also have a certain 
I amount of PD software which 
you can drag down the phone 
line to your own computer. If 
you're a programmer, you can 
put your software on to the 
bulletin board. Then, subject to 
approval from the SysOp (the 
warm-hearted person who runs 
the bulletin board), it will be there 
for others to access. Fame! 

Which bulletin board should I 
start with? 

Try the Compunet Information 
exchange (CIX on 081390 1244). 
You have to pay a small fee to 
join, but it is one of the largest 
BBSs in the country. Something 
you might like to try is using a 
system called a conference, by 
which users can get together and 
discuss topics of interest to them, 
exchanging news and views. 

Amiga Shopper has its own 
conference on CIX. You can use it 
to send us letters, make 
complaints (perish the thought), 
download files or get general 
information. The account is called 
amigashopper. 



On 



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91 



FAX NO. 0457 868946 c COPYRICHT VIDEOVAULT NO. 090171 



C O M M S 




Falcom's external FCM2400 looks the part and does the biz, but at a price 



(ontimied frwn pop 90 

There may even be a reduction in 
transmission speed. On the other 
hand, V.42bis allows for this and will 
switch off compression so long as it 
detects an already compressed file. 
With the 2400zi, only a direct 
connection is possible. This means 
that the computer sends information 
to the modem at the same rate as the 
modem sends the information down 
the phone line (known as the 
connection rate). But if you ore 
sending compressed data, the rate at 
which this data is transmitted will 
effectively be higher than the 
connection rate. The 2400zi Plus 
allows for this by means of 'flow 
control'. Using this, the computer con 
send data to the modem at a different 
rate (preferably faster) than the 
transmission rate down the phone 
line, allowing full use to be made of 
the speed advantage of data 
compression. Connections using flow 
control are termed 'normal' and 
'reliable' connections. 

Decisions decisions 

It is possible to tell the modem which 
type of connection you require. If you 
ask for a normal connection, the 
modem will attempt to make a 
connection at 2,400bps. Asking for a 
reliable connection means that the 
modem will first attempt to connect 
using V.42bis data compression and 
error correction. If this fails (it will 
only work if the receiving modem 
supports this protocol), it will foil 
back to V.42 error correction, and if 
this doesn't work, it will then try an 
MNP connection. If nothing works, 
the modem will hang up. Instead, you 
might want to ask for an auto-reliable 
connection - one that will attempt to 
connect in the same way as a 
reliable connection - but, if all 
options foil, it will revert to a 
2,400bps normal connection. 

Because of such options, the 
manual that comes with the 2400zi 
plus is substantially thicker than that 
of the 2400zi. The given explanation 



of the extra features is adequate, but 
not exactly enlightening as to what is 
actually going on. The figures quoted 
for improvements in transmission 
speed due to data compression are 
also somewhat misleading. The 
manual states that the maximum 
increase in throughput is from 2,400 
to 9,600bps using V.42bis. Research 
by British Telecom produces an 
average throughput improvement of 
2,400 to 6,997bps. To be fair to 
Supra, just about every modem 
manufacturer quotes such 'perfect' 
speed improvements for data 
compression. In reality, the 
improvement depends on the type of 
file being transmitted - some files 
compress better than others - and 
noise on the phone line, which 
determines how many chunks of data 
have to be re-transmitted. Having 
said this, the additions of data 
compression and error correction 
give a big improvement in speed. 

The SupraModem 2400zi plus is 
a powerful, affordable modem that 
should satisfy comms' connoisseurs 
and beginners alike, provided they 
don't mind using equipment that has 
not been BABT approved. 



Checkout 

SupraModem 2400zi plus 



Documentation 20/25 

Marginally better than that supplied with the 
2400zi Explanations of error correction 
and data compression are also included. 

Installation 9/15 

Exactly the same as the 2400zi 

Facilities 21/30 

A good, medium-range set of features. 
Should help to reduce the phone bills. 

Price value 26/30 

One of the cheapest modems available with 
this specification. 




If you don't mind the lack of approval from 
BABT, it's a winner. 



Falcom FCM2400 



You could not find a modem that 
looked more like a modem ought to 
than the Falcom. With its long, slim, 
cream-coloured case and row of LEDs 
across the front, it could not look 
more ordinary. 

It is an external modem, which 
means that it will work with any 
Amiga simply by connecting to the 
serial port and plugging the included 
telephone lead into a wall socket. 
And that's it - no software installation 
(the standard serial.device driver is 
used), messing about with screws or 
anything. It even comes supplied with 
a mains plug. 

The package does include 
software - a comms program written 
for the PC. This isn't much use to us, 
of course, but neither is it much of a 
problem, given the profusion of 
Amiga PD comms programs. Very 
few modems seem to be supplied 
with their own software. 

Feature sum check 

The features of this modem are very 
similar to those of the SupraModem 
2400zi plus. It will store a phone 
number and up to four user-definable 
configurations in non-volatile 
memory. It has flow control, so that 
the transmission/reception speed of 
the computer can be faster than that 
of the modem, thus making use full 
use of the advantages of data- 
compression and error correction. It 
supports V.21 (300bps), V.22 
(1,200bps) and V.22bis (2,400bps), 
as well as the American Bell 
protocols. 

V.23 is also supported, although 
it is rarely used these days. It allows 
a transmission rate of 75bps and 
reception at 1 ,200bps (or vice versa) 
and is used mainly for viewdata 
systems in which the exchange of 
information is largely one-way The 
modem also has MNP error 
correction and data compression up 
to level 5, as well as V.42 error 
correction and V.42bis data 
compression. 

The default setting of the Falcom 
is such that the device will try an 
auto-reliable connection, falling back 
to progressively less desirable 
connection types if need be. As with 
the Supra Plus, all of these settings 
can be changed via the Hayes AT 
commands. In addition, the Falcom 
understands another command set 
known as V.25bis. This is a set of 
commands ratified by CCITT and 
used for automatic calling and/or 
answering systems. Despite their 
popularity with CCITT, they have yet 
to be widely adopted by the majority 
of those manufacturing modems for 
the home computing fraternity. 

The manual is a good deal more 
terse' than those for the Supra models. 



After a quick paragraph describing 
what a modem is, another detailing 
transmission speeds and finally a tiny 
bit about error checking and data 
compression, the reader is left with a 
long and horrifyingly complex list of 
AT commands. 

This lack of documentation may 
leave the beginner confused, but on 
the other hand the Falcom is 
simplicity itself to install, and the 
default settings needn't be changed 
for standard use. It is also BABT 
approved, and so has a certain edge 
over the Supra for those law-abiding 
users in Amiga-land. However, it 
seems that legality comes at quite a 
price. The Falcom costs twice the 
price of the external Supra Plus, for 
almost the same functionality, f* ^ 



ECKOUT 

Falcom FCM2400 



Documentation 8/25 

Woefully inadequate. 

Installation 14/15 

Wonderfully simple. 

Facilities 25/30 

Good, with o slightly higher specification 
than the 2400zi Plus. 

Price value 14/30 

You certainly have to shell out a fair bit for 
the BABT badge. 




Another nice, if expensive modem. 



oooooooool 

Shopping List 

SupraModem 2400zi £119.95 

SupraModem 2400 

(external version of obove) £149.95 

SupraModem 2400zi plus £169.95 

SupraModem 2400 plus 

(external version of above) £199.95 

by Supra Corporation 
1 1 33 Commercial Way, 
Albany 0R97321 USA 
« 0101 800 727 8772 
or «■ 0101 503967 9075 

Distributed in UK by: 

Surface UK -081 566 6677 

WIS Electrodes* 0582 491949 
GT Distribution tr 0205 368449 
Supply Solutions * 081 566 3639 
Baker & Hudson Consultants 
tr 0482 26581 

FCM2400 £405.37 

including Securicor delivery and VAT. 

Direct from Falcom 

Unit 8, Boston Business Pork, 

Trompers Way, 

London W7 20D 

• 081 -843 2277 




92 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1991 




Tel: (0268) 782949. 



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"STOCKS SUBJECT TO AVAILABILITY" . 

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A1500 "Base Unit" £599.95 

A1500 "Base Unit + Software" £649.95 

A1500 "Base Unit + Software + Monitor" £899 95 

A590 "20MB Hard Disk" £259.95 

A501 'Memory Expansion ♦ Captive" £54 95 

A1084SD 'Colour Monitor + Cable" £244 95 

ROTEC RF332C "3 5" Disk Drive" £54.95 

Philips CM8833/2 Colour Monitor £234.95 

Citizen Swift9 Colour Printer * Cable £209.95 

AMIGA SOFTWARE 

AMOS £32.95 

Deluxe Paint II £19.95 

Deluxe Paint III £59 95 

Deluxe Print II £34.95 

Deluxe Video III £69.95 

Disney Animation Studio £74.95 

Kindwords V2.0 £36.95 

Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing £22 95 

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AT ONCE PC EMULATOR £169 00 

Many other Amiga titles in stock CALL 



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"From 1985, Steinberg's Pro 24 
was the most popular piece of 
sequencing software in the 
music world. Now re-worked 
and stuffed full of advanced 
features, it is available on the 
Amiga and I'm here to see if it 
really performs." 

Jon Bates 







Jon Bates investigates the latest 
compositional capabilities of 
Steinberg's recently re- worked 
sequencing package, Pro 24 




n booting up this 1 . 1 
version of Steinberg's 
biggest Amiga venture to 
date, the screen assumes 
the familiar broad outline of Pro 24. 
The tracks are laid out from left to 
right across the upper half of the 
screen; transport controls and locator 
points are in the lower half (along 
with many new icons). The prime 
difference visually is that the MIDI 
activity meters/bar graphs are now 
centered under their tracks. 

Overall song construction 
remains the same. Each track is sub 



from start to finish, thus having 
continuous overdubs and lines 
running through the whole piece. 
That's the overview; let's look at the 
various departments in more detail. 

Chunky function 

The basic functions are very easy to 
use. Select a track, set the MIDI 
channel and hit the nice chunky 
record icon. It defaults to a two-bar 
count-in and after this, off you go. 
The count-in can be altered from the 
metronome menu, which has all the 
alternatives imaginable. 







o 



► >-c4 83 




85 ►^-c^ 86 »-e4 87 ►>«£< 88 



The detailed main screen of Pro 24. The tracks are in the top half of the screen and the 
controls below. The gap in the middle is where you will see the bar graphs for each track. 



divided into patterns of any length, 
which correspond to the various 
recorded 'lakes' you make on each 
track. These con be played back in 
two ways. The first is in the manner 
of a 24-track machine: each track 
plays back exactly what is recorded 
on it and up to 24 tracks can be 
played back at once. The other way 
is to go into a sequencer mode and 
address the patterns individually, 
thereby having them play in any 
order, chaining them together. 

/However, Pro 24 is flexible 
because, while doing this, you can 
still allocate some tracks to be played 



Any section recorded is assumed to 
be ihe length of the pattern within the 
track. Obviously, this con be 
amended afterwords - a situation 
that is nearly always the case. Each 
pattern and track is best named 
straight away, otherwise you get 
more than a little lost. In practise, the 
easiest way to record patterns is to 
record one section. When you are 
happy with this, the locator points 
can be set to pick up from the end of 
the section and put it into punch-in 
record, with the right hand locator set 
at a suitable distance to allow for a 
last minute re-think. Once this is 



finished you cut it on top of the end 
of the first pattern. 

This seems to be the easiest way 
of working within one track. You can 
always copy tracks and patterns to 
anywhere you like. However, it is not 
immediately clear from the screen 
which figures are the locator points 
and which are the limits of the 
pattern you are currently working on 
as they are positioned one above 
another without labels. 

Among the first things to cope 
with are the three modes of using the 
mouse. They all actually do the same 

thing, but 

resumably they ore 
there to give you a 
preferred way of 
working. These are 
set from the main 
screen although, 
since I suspect that 
once set you would 
hardly need to 
change them, they 
could have been 
stuck on an options 
menu out of the 
way. Mode one is 
'drag' mode: the 
numeral appears in a 
box and can be 
altered by either horizontal or 
vertical movements. Mode two is 
'key' mode: the left button increases 
or decreases a value aided by the 
simultaneous use of [Alt], [Ctrl] and 
[Shift]. Button mode allows the right 
hand button to decide increase or 
decrease and speed and the left 
clicks on the number. 

Strange mode 

Although quite ingenious, it may well 
have been more straightforward to 
offer two from within a menu. It is not 
helped by the misplacing of the 
illustrations in the manual. One 



kV 



BEGINNERS 

'start here 



What is MIDI? 

MIDI is an acronym for Music 
Instrument Digital Interface. 

Yeah, / know that, but what does 
it do exactly? 

MIDI provides a way for music 
computers (keyboard synths, 
modules, the Amiga with a MIDI 
interface, etc) to communicate. A 
key press, shift of the modulation 
wheel or even a patch change on 
your synth can be transmitted to 
another, so you can use one 
keyboard to control a whole host 
of instruments. 

So how do I use MIDI with a 
musk sequencer like Pro 24? 
You'll need a MIDI interface (from 
about £20) which will enable you 
to attach your synths to the 
Amiga. Sequencers record 
anything you play on your music 
keyboard, such as key presses 
and so on, and play that data 
back to the original, or another 
MIDI-equipped synth. So, once 
you've recorded your ivory- 
tinkling efforts, you can then 
manipulate the data within the 
sequencer - rather like a word 
processor, but with note length, 
pitch, tempo, etc, instead of 
words. Then, at the press of a 
mouse button, the data can be re- 
transmitted to any synth fitted 
with MIDI. Of course, you can 
transmit to several synths 
simultaneously and build up a 
whole musical ensemble in the 
privacy of your home. 



94 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1 99 1 




MUSIC 



1/16 



problem with some settings, such as 
tempo change, is that you can't hear 
the result of the change until you 
release the mouse button. 

Playing back in ordinary (Tape) 
mode is easy as you merely hit 
playback. You can mute any tracks 
or solo a track - the solo button is not 
on the actual channels but another of 
the lower screen icons 
In Sequencer mode, it 
is best to have all of, 
say, the rhythm tracks, 
like drums, bass and 
keyboards, set to the 
same lengths. If you do 
this then the arrange 
page works very well. 
How it works is that 
you can only take the 
patterns from one track 
as reference points, 
and it is these lengths 
that the program 
arranges from. If you 
wont to alter any of them, you can't. 
The only way around this is to return 
to the main reference patterns and 
copy some of them with bars cut or to 
insert addition patterns, which seems 
a bit inflexible. There is no way of 
visually following the arrangement 
either. In fact, if you start the pattern 
running and go to the arrangement 
page, the sound stops, although the 
counter keeps on rolling. 

Keep on tracking 

Any tracks not selected for 
sequencing can be used to 
accompany the ones that are, which 
provides a flexible way of working 
It's a shame Steinberg couldn't have 
made more use of the Track Survey 
feature. This menu option displays all 
the patterns in named blocks, very 
much in the manner of Cubase - 
Steinberg's top-of-the-range 
sequencer. Sadly, this page is for 
information only and is not an active 
screen (and it doesn't number the 
tracks on the vertical left hand axis). 

The copy, delete and move 
features are accessed from the menus 
for each pattern, and there's a neat 
shortcut that copies the current 
pattern to any track by clicking on 
the first pattern locator and dragging 
it to a track. 

In Cycle Record there are two 
innovative overdub functions. The first, 
instead of either mixing with the 
notes already on the track or 
replacing them, actually only deletes 
notes that approximately match up to 
those input. This means that you can 
re-do ,say, a drum track without 
losing important fills and nuances 
originally present. The second is a 
totally mind-boggling feature which 
will actually keep up to 1 27 different 
recorded versions of the overdub. It 
just keeps cycling around and muting 
the last version. You then have the 



The grid editing screen 
(right). Although very 
well thought out 
visually, you can't 
actually hear anything 
while you're editing 
with it and the screen 
doesn't scroll when the 
music plays. 




1/ 1/ M Bio 



fi Controller 

Tining Resolution 
>ller Hv. 
Vel oc ./Pressure Note 



Copy 
Mr it 



A smart piece of 
design (left). 
The overlay on the 
left is the level 
control for one note 
and the menu at the 
bottom determines 
what you are altering 
graphically. 



fun of selecting just exactly which of 
the 1 27 overdubs you want to keep 
A little over the top, but it certainly 
would have its uses. It too has some 
little quirks: you can't activate 
playback while the window is open, 
even from the qwerty keys, and 
changing from overdub to overdub 
isn't quite so straightforward. 

Quantize 

There are two types of quantize: 
fixed data quantize, which alters the 
track/pattern data permanently, and 
real-time quantize, correctly termed a 
playback parameter'. The latter is 
accessed from the question marks to 



marks for an excellent piece of fast 
and friendly design. 

Echo only works on playback 
and does not affect MIDI data put 
through to the active tone module 
channel as you play it, which could 
be useful as hearing echo all over 
what you're trying to play might alter 
the way you hit the notes. 

Most of the windows that set 
peripherals have a handy 'try' option 
which checks the result of new 
settings on whatever is playing 
before you finally set it and return to 
the main page. However, for many 
of the the windows, you have to have 
the track playing first because the 



of hearing anything being edited. 
This mokes editing very difficult and 
such a feature should not be omitted 
from a program of this stature. The 
edit displays do not scroll while the 
sequencer is running either and, 
despite Pro 24'% many good and 
excellent points, these two major 
factors put a lot in the way of the 
user and the music. 

However, the options presented 
are really special. The most often 
used will probably be the Grid 
Editor. Steinberg has come up with a 
neat way of sizing up the grid 
against which notes are graphically 
displayed. A 'zoom' box in one 



Note: 
Condi t ion : 



Posi tion 



itch 



Logical Edit 

Channel Length 



Byte 1 



Bvte 2 



ArithM.Op. :i_ 
x *x -x *x /x 

Limits: Start: 
« — „. Left: 



None 



Not 



Range : 



J'H~4 Ed* t 



8/ 4/ 18 
8/ 4/ 19 
8/ 4/ 21 

§/ 4/ 27 
/ 4/ 28 
8/ 4/ 32 
8/ 4/ 35 
8/ 4/ 38 



End: 

Rii/ht: 




[01] 
[911 
[011 
[61] 
[81] 
[81] 
[01] 
[01] 



Channel 
Channel 
Channel 
Channe 1 
Channel 
Channel 
Channel 
Channe 1 



Pressure 
Pressure 
Pressure 
Pressure 
Pressure 
Pressure 
Pressure 
Pressure 



t lze 



runutiuii Levei 
Step In Wide 



Oris 

Hrit* 



8/ 4/ 42 [01; 



Many editing options are available within the Edit screen. The arithmetic functions of Logical Edit are overlayed 
with the event list. You can edit in either window, which is a quick and easy way to work. 



the side of the current track/pattern 
playing. This has a really worthwhile 
set of options that can be tried out 
before leaving the window: velocity 
delay, echo, transpose, program 
change, volume, plus all the track 
details you could want. The quantize 
options here can be exactly the same 
as the data altering ones and are 
selected from within this window Full 



main screen area is often inactive 
when a window is opened. 

Editing 

There is a host of ways in which to 
edit the data; grid display, graphic 
control, event list editing arithmetic 
alteration of data and score display. 
However, unless I did something 
grossly amiss, there was no chance 



corner shifts the X-Y axis of the grid 
and is a brilliant way of quickly 
getting the correct display to change 
notes rapidly. As with many other 
departments in this program, there is 
a safety margin bordering on the 
paranoid. Any changes you make 
are taken as a copy and not written 
to the track unless you specifically 

(Minted on poo* 96 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1 99 1 



95 



MUSIC 




continued from pogt 95 

say so. This can be overridden, but is 
an excellent safeguard. Like all the 
safeguards, they are memory 
intensive but very worthy features. 

To the left of the grid is an 
upright keyboard to line the pitch of 
the notes against. However, the 
cursor also registers pitch as you 
move it over the grid - another good 



Thoughtfully, the program 
automatically creates a fresh 1 6-bar 
pattern if you decide to take this 
route. By hitting T on the keyboard 
the Event List editor appears. To input 
data here for any of it's entries you 
need to do it directly from the 
keyboard in the format that is used 
by the program. 

The graphic Level Control allows 



drums. You can of course create your 
own custom map. 

An arithmetic function called 
Logical Edit can be called in for any 
pattern or track and will perform 
specific calculations on any defined 
fields of data within any preset 
number of bars. This makes the 
program extremely powerful as the 
function can be used to select certain 




This is one screen you can't edit in. Although it scrolls along happily enough, you can't touch the notes at all. 



idea Notes can be selected and 
moved, stretched and truncated 
depending on where you click on it. 
It only deals with one note at a time 
and the velocity is altered from a 
slider at the bottom of the screen. 

Notes nibbled 

Another nice feature is the 'wide' 
burton which allows the mouse a 
degree of inaccuracy so that small 



you to draw in data and can be 
applied to program change, note 
velocities, pitch bend, after touch and 
any of the useful MIDI controllers - 
probably pan and volume. 

It displays each event individually 
in great detail and is therefore 
incredibly accurate. It would have 
been beneficial to have installed a 
'zoom' mode here so that you could 
view a track or pattern in less detail. 



notes, controllers, velocities - in fact 
anything you like. As long as you are 
familior with the way in which MIDI 
data is listed by a sequencer, it is 
extremely useful. Again, it can be 
made reversible by taking a copy of 
the function. Usefully, the events 
altered can be automatically 
quantized up to the current value as 
well. The manual is particularly 
helpful on this feature. 



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s Pattei*ninf 
— Velocity: 
Delay: 
Transpose: 
Voice: 
olime: 
Start: 
First: 



Notes: 79 
oly ppss: 
itch: 9 
note:C 

atus: 



DmII 




IZIIZlCDElC3tZICDC3 



oo 



BBB 



Nol [Nol [Nol [Nol [Nol [Nol [Nol [No] |No1 [No1[No1 






Cancel 



/ 1/ 
/ 1/ 



6 End: 
6 Last: 
Events: 343 
Control: 33 
A-Touch: 231 
Pro#Ch#: 8 
Hig h no te: q 1 
FrTl Qnt: r 



Piano 



tn Ml 



1/ 1/ 
1/ 1/ 



iiHi ed 



8/ 4/ 9 
9/ 1/ I 



M*M 87 >**< 88 




Altering pattern parameters is made exceptionally easy and very well taken care of with the above window. 



notes can easily be captured. One 
snag is that once a note has been 
entered, there seems to be no way 
way of allering ils pitch - even 
though its precise data can be 
displayed, the data is unalterable. 
Once in Grid Edit mode, other 
patterns con be loaded up without 
having to return to the main screen 
Blocks of notes can be defined 
and then copied, moved or deleted. 
Echo effects can be created in this 
way. Grid Edit can also be used to 
create new tracks in step time. 



which would be of far more use for 

certain controllers. 

Drum edit » 

A variation on the grid editor is 
applied to drum tracks. A set of drum 
maps, some of which are included on 
the disk, are loaded in and these 
interpret the notes on the track by 
giving them the correct drum name, 
which is listed to the left in place of 
the keyboard. Again, a very neat 
way, derived from earlier versions of 
this program, of manipulating the 



Score Display, however, is 
disappointing. It really only does 
exactly what it says: scrolling and 
illuminating the notes that are 
currently playing on the pattern 
selected, thereby rendering it a 
cosmetic feature. A great shame. This 
could and should have been 
expanded into an editor or even a 
score print-out facility. 

Pro 24 has a rather ingenious 
method of routing incoming MIDI 
data .using what are termed 
'subtracks'. Across the bottom of the 



main screen are inputs, each one of 
which can be set to route incoming 
data to several tracks and channels 
at once, or to only occept data from 
one channel. You can set record 
modes from here as well. Although 
extremely useful, I did wonder why 
one would need eight of them all at 
once. Why not just have one with 
different set-ups memorised? This 
would save cluttering up the screen 
area, which is already very full. Yes, 
it works, but perhaps with a little too 
much enthusiasm. 

The package has a clever nesting 
routine which works with the 'undo' 
button. You can specify an almost 



BLITS 



Eagle-eyed Amiga Shopper 
reader Martin Boycott-Brown 
spotted a wee gaffe on a musical 
note in our June issue's Scala 
review (see p64). "I don't know 
whether or not there is an opera 
house called La Scala in Madrid, " 
he writes, "but there is definitely 
one in Milan." Did we say 
Madrid? Oh no, whoops, sorry, 
argh, and sack that damn 
encyclopaedia. But then Martin 
should know as he lives in 
Verona. He also took the trouble 
to check out the origin of the 
word: "According to the Penguin 
Dictionary of Music, the opera 
house is so named because it was 
built [in 1788] on the former site 
of a church, Santa Maria alia 
Scala." Fancy inviting us over to 
discuss this further Martin? 



A BOBS 

limitless number of steps for the 
'undo' button to go bock, so if you've 
screwed up in a big way, you can 
step back quite a number of 
operations. The trade-off is that it 
uses up lots of memory, so only mega 
RAM owners really get the full 
protective benefit from it. 

It will retrieve and store Systems 
Exclusive information - those intimate 
details of sound creation data known 
only to your synth. The data can be 
stored for each song in the form of a 
file which can then be dumped 
automatically before you start 
playing back. This saves you 
searching around for sound 
disks/programs as the sounds are all 
there ready and waiting. It can even 
dump the list out as an ASCII file. 
This again was a feature of the 
original prograrr) and it is a very 
useful routine to have. Another 



96 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 •AUGUST 1991 



r Jl J i r rnrrr J < J J~ 3 J j ! ^ p 



MUSIC 



favourite facility that has survived is 
the Mastertrack, used to dictate 
details of tempo changes and many 
other global bits of information that 
govern the performance of a piece. 

Mastertrack also records data 
generated by one of the program's 
best features, the mixer page. Not 
content with merely balancing sound 
levels, Pro 24 con apply its double 
set of faders to many other areas - a 
feature found on other up-market 
sequencers. The trump card is the 
ingenious way it is enacted, plus the 
echo feature which is incorporated in 
several other sections of the program. 

Bucket noises 

As well as being able to copy and 
delay a track to create a single echo 
feature, there is a full echo feature. 
When I sported this, the only version I 
found applied to all the tracks all of 
the time which resulted in an 
enormous and uncontrollable row 
followed by a MIDI jam of mega 
proportions. When it is used under 
the control of the mixer style faders, 
it's a fabulous tool. You can echo 
any track with any amount of 
variable echoes, either diminishing or 
getting louder, staying the same 
length apart, speeding up or slowing 



down. You can 
even specify the 
pitch to rise or fall 
and the transfer of 
echos to alternative 
channels. All these 
functions can be 
governed by the 
double mixer faders 
and applied to 
each track 
individually. You 
can really improve 
the sound of a 
piece by the careful 
use of this feature, 
but going berserk 
with it will ensure 
your synths get constipated very 
quickly and retire hurt. All the real- 
time alterations to this and all 
controllers, pitch bend, velocities and 
modulations are recorded on to the 
Master Track. This is an exceptional 
feature and one that gives very fine 
control over the music. 

Communication with the world 
outside takes several forms. It can 
synchronize or be synchronized via 
MIDI and this includes using Midi 
Time Code (MTC) and SMPTE. It can 
read and store SMUS/IFF song files, 
standard MIDI files, as well as its 



01 sa si] [eg iia^ 

jb* m • « a a 

A A A A A A 




The amazingly versatile mixer screen. The faders line up under the tracks and the functions 
are picked from menus at the bottom. A real boon of a feature and great to work with. 




Select valid MIDI channels: 




t ail 



Clear all 



Invert 



Standard 



Done 



Fill 



111 



III 



<* 



► ^ 8l!>X< B2l!»c< 83 »»«4 M |»X4 85 »c< 96 




Two functions are displayed on-screen here. The top one is the non-active track overview 
while the lower enables you to select the way that MIDI data is directed on input. 



drum sets, Sys Ex files, tracks, 
patterns, auto set-ups and of course 
the song itself. There is a far-ranging 
MIDI set-up page to cover incoming, 
thru and outgoing data. And many of 
the functions can be controlled from 
keys on your instrument according to 
how you set the 'remote' page up. 

Reprise to fade 

Pro 24 is a very comprehensive 
program with many great features. 
As such, it can cope with a lot of 
different environments and it's not too 
hard to get to know, although I 

suspect you'll be 
taking some time 
plumbing its 
considerable 
depths. But with 
advanced features 
such as echo 
control and 
overdub facilities, 
how come such 
simple but vital 
things as hearing 
your edits as you 
do them and 
scrolling music for 
error location are 



8/ 4/ 9 
9/ 1/ 



lX-4 88 



missing? 




JARGO 



MIDI: Musk Instrument Digital Interface: the universal 

standard by whkh digital instruments such as 
synths and computers con communicate 

RAM: Random Access Memory. The amount of space that 

is available in the computer for data to be stored. 

REAL TIME; Data is altered 'as it occurs' rather than when it is 
residing in the memory of the computer. 

MIDI CLOCK; The regular pulses sent via MIDI whkh ensure 
that instruments listening will play at the same 
speed 

MIDI TIME CODE; Ensures that as well as playing at the same 
speed, the instruments will all stop ond start from 
exactly the same place. 



SMPTIi 



Society of Motion Picture and Televison Engineers. 
A time code standard used in video film and 
television industries. 



BUSTING 

MIDI containing information that can only be 
understood by the make and model of instrument 
it is addressed to. 

QUANTIZE: To round up data, usually meaning the correction 
of timing errors that occur in performance 

VELOCITY DATA: Information transmitted via MIDI that refers 
to the speed with whkh a particular note was 
pressed ond thus affects the tone it creates. 

PITCH BEND: The ability to vary the pitch up or down of ony 
note by using either a wheel or joystick-type 
control mounted on the synth, usually to the left 
of the keyboard 

MODULATION: Alters the sound according to the way it has 

been programmed; usually in the form of a vibrato 
■ the note wavers in pitch and the amount it 
wavers is controlled by the Modulation control. 



MIDI FILE FORMAT: A standard file format that enables 

data to be loaded from one program to another. 

SYS EX; The specialised data that is transmitted via 



PAN: 



Corresponds to the Balance control on your stereo 
system - moving the sound from left to right. Midi 
is able to control this provided that the output from 
the synth or module is stereo. 



Although basically brilliant and a 
program that could, with fine tuning, 
be THE sequencing package for the 
Amiga bar none, at the moment 
Pro24 is a very slick curate's egg. 
Excellent for the most part, but with 
the odd sour spot /t^ 

ooooooooo] 

Shopping List 



i i tt i it i it i ia 



£291.20 



pro 24 1.1 ..... 

by Steinberg 

Gffeslrafc 596, D2000, Hamburg 26 

Germony* 010 494 021 1594 

distributed in the UK by 

Evenlode 

The Studio, Church St, 

Stonesfield 

Oxford 0X7 2PS 

» 0993 898484 




Checkoi 

PRO 24 1.1 



Documentation ..... 15/20 

Well written and comprehensive, but with 
one or two errors. Easy to follow but 
needs an index. 

Functions 1 8/20 

Very comprehesive array of functions for 
every possibility, with several ways of 
solving problems. 

Speed 1 7/20 

All operations work without any 
noticeable time lapse. 

Ease of use 13/20 

Easy to start with, but some functions take 
time to find and get used to. Editing is 
severely marred by the lode of scrolling 
and monitoring facilities. 

Price 16/20 

Although not exactly cheap, it is 
nevertheless a professional price for a 
professional product. 




A few omissions let this fine product 
down, but it's still a great music machine. 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1991 



97 



PAZ AZ ! 



THE ONE STOP AMIGA SHOP IN SCOTLAND 



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E D U C AT I O 






VIEW AND COMPARE DATA 



N*x - 31 



<Deg C) Htxinun Temperature 



Key <X> 




25 1 h 



Mix " 17 



(De9 C> Minim* Tenperature 





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Weather Watcher is a 'must-buy' program for all you amateur 
meteorologists out there. It is ideal for class weather projects. 





[•■* Ml / JE 

Hind Speed Njy 
and Direction c 

17.8 K*/h 



The attractive graphical displays ensure that this is not one of those 
programs which will only be used for a week and then forgotten. 





Pat Winsfanley rates the 
performance of a selection of 
educational programs aimed at 
older schoolchildren and adults 




y the time kids hit 
secondary school they are 
expected to have a good 
grasp of the fundamentals 
of English and maths. These skills will 
be used as basic tools to allow 
access to other subjects. In contrast to 
the cross-curricular approach of 
primary education, senior schools 
treat topics in a much more 
differentiated way, defining each 
subject by the knowledge needed for 
GCSE examinations. 

Whereas topic-based work in the 
primary school allows for all interests, 
the rigid separation of subjects in 
senior school can alienate kids who 
are weok or uninterested in o 
particular area. Thus, many girls 
'hate' maths due to stereotyping, and 
probably 'hate' computing too, since 
it is also generally seen as a male 
preserve, so girls allow themselves to 
be edged out. Your Amiga at home 
can really come into its own in these 
situations, as it can be used as a tool 
with which weak students can tackle 
difficult subjects in private. 

Weather Watcher 

The great British preoccupation with 
weather statistics had another boost 
the other day with snow in June. Do 
you remember about 1 5 years ago 
when a cricket match was 
abandoned because 'snow stopped 
play'? If so, you're probably one of 
those people who eat statistics for fun 
and cause riotous arguments down at 



the local pub. Weather Watcher is a 
program that enables you to record 
and chart a selection of weather 
statistics on o daily basis, then draw 
comparisons across time. It is 
intended as a tool for the enthusiast 
or for class project work and, while 
rather simple, it does its job well. The 
values which can be entered into the 
database cover minimum and 
maximum temperatures, dry and wet 
bulb temperatures, humidity, air 
pressure, rainfall, sunshine, cloud 
cover, and wind speed and direction. 
Daily entries are provided for all 
of these and can be viewed and 
edited either as figures or as a 
graphical representation chosen for a 
visual display of the overall weather 
day-by-day. There is also space for a 
single line of text which could be 
used to record the main event of the 
day for reference. Only values within 



"Computers fascinate kids, but both small and medium-sized sprogs 
rapidly give up when boredom sets in. Which programs have them 
coming back for more and which send them running out to play in the 
rain? If they don't like the game, it won't teach them anything." 

Pat Winstanley 



the allowed ranges may be entered, 
with invalid figures highlighted and 
not accepted. 

" Having entered some or all of the 
values in the database, the user is 
then offered a wide variety of 
displays to compare different types of 
data. Using this, patterns and trends 
can be spotted allowing the 
interaction between various 
atmospheric factors to be studied. 

Two graphs for each month are 
shown on-screen, covering one type 
of value each. Thus daily rainfall 
could be compared with maximum 
temperatures, or cloud cover with air 
pressure. Each of the data types can 
be combined with any other for 
comparative purposes. The same can 
be done with the whole year and 
shown on-screen. Additionally, the 
editing screen can be displayed, 
without editing facilities, in both 



PC OR NOT PC 

Unfortunately the Amiga is definitely the poor relation in 
many schools, where the PC and Archimedes rule the 
roost. If you have PC compatibility/ there is a wealth of 
software about, so if you can't wait around for the small 
proportion of conversions to appear it's well worth 
thinking about investing in one of the PC emulators 
available for the Amiga, such as the KCS Powerboard or 
the ATonce, both of which Mark Smiddy reviewed in 
Amiga Shopper, issues two and three respectively. 



figure and picture form. Any of the 
screens con be dumped to a printer 
simply by clicking on the display, 
giving the opportunity to compare 
one year with another. As an added 
extra, you can create and display 
your own weather mops. 

The loading screen shows a 
blank map of Great Britain with 
animated weather symbols, such as 
clouds dropping rain. It also shows o 
scrolling text message. All of these 
aspects are available for the user to 
manipulate using an art package, 
either by simply changing the layout 
of the current map, or by adding new 
symbols, messages and so on. 

The two parts of the program ore 
not integrated, so weather maps must 
be built up by hand. However, the 
facilities enable you to create 
animated displays which have 
nothing to do with the weather simply 
by taking advantage of the system 
and substituting your own ideas. 

What is it, Where is it? 

Learning the positions and names of 
various counties con be a hard slog, 
so it's good to see a program that 
makes the task more of a game than 
a drilling exercise. The basic screen 
display shows the British Isles with 
each county marked as a coloured 
area on the map. Several options are 
available, allowing learning, testing 
or simply playing about, depending 
on your abilities. 

(Mtiavtdofl p«g* 100 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 # AUGUST 199 



99 



E D U C AT I O 



Uest Midlands 






taffordshire 




BRITISH ISLES 



! 



Hereford fc 
Uorcesttr 



Warwickshire 



Please Uait Progran Loading 



What is it. Where is it? tests the student's knowledge of the counties in 
Great Britain; both the names and geographic locations are tested. 



w 



99 



What is it, where is it? presents o 
map with one county highlighted in 
flashing red, together with a list of all 
the county names. The task is to 
select the correct name by scrolling 
through the list. For users who want 

more of a challenge, the list can be 
dispensed with, leaving you to type 
the county name. 

The package also shows the map 
and counties but, at the simpler level, 
provides a county name for you to 
find and click on with the mouse. On 



At the harder level, the task is 
identical, except that you don't have 
a map and must work out placements 
by deciding which counties share 
borders - not easy. If all that sounds 
too difficult, two tutors are also 
available. One will display a county 
name if you click on the area, while 
the other will highlight the correct 
area to match the name which you 
select with the mouse from a 
scrollable list of counties. 

All the maps ore also available 
as IFF files, and so can be pulled 



Graph of results so Fgu*. 



Nane : PAT 
Score fox* this round : 




Questions 
Attempted: 2 



Per for nance 

Brilliant* 



Coivrc 



Mr on- 



Press any key to continue 



Better Maths is one of a range of maths packages from School Software. 
Its laid-back approach means that it is sure to be a popular choice. 




the harder level the computer 
supplies a county name again, but 
randomly highlights different county 

areas in rotation. The task is to click 

the mouse when the correct area is 
highlighted and, since the areas 
change rapidly, a fair bit of reflex 
speed is required in addition to 
knowledge. Jigsaw also provides two 
difficulty levels. In the easier game 
each county shape is simply picked 
up like a jigsaw piece and slotted 
into its place in the map. 



from the disk to use in your own 
graphical displays. 

The package is very flexible and 
a dream to use - it is certainly 
suitable for all ages. 1 can imagine 
some pretty mean contests 
developing between older and 
younger family members as the 
package is used as a quiz. It's 
certainly one that has kept me 
coming back again and again, and 
each time I use it I learn a little more 
while having lots of fun. 



Better maths 

• 
School Software offers a range of 
maths packages for various ages. 
Those for primary children are 
generally presented in the form of 
games, but with Setter Maths (for 
ages 1 2 to 16) the emphasis 
changes and becomes much more of 
an interactive text-book style. Topics 
covered include algebra, ratios, 
factors and quadratic equations 
among others, with the depth of 
treatment needed for GCSE and 
similar exams. 

The first section is a tutorial, in 
the form of a series of text pages 
going through the basics of a topic. 
After the concept has been 
introduced in the first few pages, the 
texts breaks to ask a question. This 
approach prevents the student 
blithely reading the text without 
having a clue about what's going on. 
Although the tutorial continues 
whether or not the student answers 
correctly, the wrong answers 
highlight weak areas. Two other 
sections present multiple choice tests 
of all the material covered. 

The first section presents 'straight' 
questions, while the second uses 
practical applications of the topics. 
Although no substitute for a good text 
book (the tutorial sections are more 
for revision and reinforcement), the 
program will make an excellent 
revision aid. One problem might be 
the approach adopted in the 
tutorials. Unlike straight facts, such as 
the dates of bottles, maths topics can 
be handled by a variety of different 
methods. If the method familiar to the 



'not sure' student differs from that in 
the tutorial, some confusion may 
result. For instance, I found the 
tutorial on factors incomprehensible 
due to an unfamiliar approach, yet 
handled test questions on the topic 
without much difficulty by using the 
method I learned years ago. 
However, even if the tutorial side has 
its drawbacks, the tests alone are 
justification for the package. 

Each test allows two goes at a 
question and presents a bar chart of 
the student's results at the end. There 
are no time limits, and the student is 
advised to make use of a text book if 
required. This unhurried, laid-back 
approach should appeal to most 
budding mathematicians who are 
discovering the delight of solving 
problems simply for the fun of doing 
so. I wish the program had been 
around 20-something years ago 
when I was struggling with 'O' levels. 

French mistress 

The biggest grind about learning a 
foreign language has to be 
vocabulary drill, and this is where the 
Kosmos Mistress series scores in its 
elegant approach to the topic. 

Two basic sections make up the 
package: a tutorial and a test. The 
system is based around word lists 
stored on disk, on English word or 
phrase and its foreign equivalent. In 
the tutorial section the required list is 
loaded from disk then shown on 
screen; the English or foreign word 
first, followed a few seconds later by 
its translated equivalent. The display 
can be set for the computer to scroll 

Mpop 102 



Covert Gaming 

It's well worth looking carefully at the shoot-'em-ups your kids 
are playing. Now that computers can include both gameplay 
and strategy without running out of memory, developers are 
beginning to work more on the 'mind games' aspect in even 
the simplest blasters. 

In both the full-price/budget market and PD/shareware 
there are many games around which demand a vicious amount 
of logic, with enough gameplay to camouflage themselves as 
'the latest chart-topper'. Aspects to watch for in an educational 
sense are mapping, logical problems and maths/economics 
(can I afford to buy the most expensive weapon and improve 
my armour at the same time - what's the trade-off?) 
Alternatively, moving across the spectrum somewhat, take a 
look at adventure games. These are used extensively in schools 
and help to develop reading and spelling skills along with 
logical thought. 

Even straight shoot-'em-ups have their part to play in 
developing reflexes. Just because a game is in the top 20 
doesn't mean it is devoid of educational value. Just look at Sim 
City as a classic example. The thing to watch is the balance 
between a quick half-hour blast during a break from revision 
and the all-night, every night compulsive gameplay. Treat 
computer usage as you would television viewing and you 
won't go far wrong. 



100 



AMIGA SHQPPfcR • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1991 



NEWI! 

Released At The 
Second MIDI 
Music Show 



TM 



AMIGA 




SequencerOne 



European 

Computer 

Leisure Awards 

1991 Nominee 



Vftajlll 17)1 



If you want to make music, the newest and most friendly music program for the Amiga could be just what you're looking 
for! Sequencer One combines powerful MIDI capabilities with four channel stereo sound output through the Amiga's own 
sound chip. 32 tracks, three graphical edit screens, and an outstanding telephone helpline sen/ice, make Sequencer One 
the best value (and best supported) sequencer available. And as an introductory offer, every copy of Amiga Sequencer 

One comes with a free copy of Gajits' The Hit 
Kit ! music composition software plus a free 
bank of sampled sounds, including lead 
instruments, percussion, and effect samples. 

To find out how you can get 
your copy of Sequencer 
One, or for a FREE info 
pack, call Gajits TODAY on 
061-236 2515! 



«» ■ 




i ; ii 



- — r ■* 



lafr.U^ Ua 





© 1991 Gajits Music Software, 40 Princess Street, Manchester. M1 6DE. Tel: 061-236 2515. Fax: 061-236 4044. 

Gajits Music Software produces a whole range of music software products for the Amiga. ST, and soon the PC. Please phone for details. 



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? 



to 

3 



< 






o 

I 

3 



101 



E D U C AT I O 



continued from page 100 

through it automatically, with the ujer 
selecting the time each translation is 
on-screen or, for more intense 
memorisation, the user can simply 
move on to the next entry when he or 
she is ready. 

Each list is concerned with a 
particular aspect of life such as The 



option to be used lightly as, at the 
end of the test, your score (including 
the number of times you have used 
help) is displayed. 

During answer entry, the 
program will not allow an incorrect 
letter to be entered - but it counts 
your mistakes too - aarghl Flexibility 
is the name of the game here. Each 



S o tie wher 



Atic, 1998 520609 




Sim City. If you pretend that It's not a game, and consider its educational 
value, you can soon convince yourself that it's a worthwhile purchase. 



Family, which includes grandparents, 
widowers, in-laws and so on In 
addition to everyday people and 
objects, the lists also cover such 
things as verbs (I am, you are, he is 
and so on) and additional lists can 
be created or existing ones modified. 
This would be particularly useful if 
you have a vocabulary list to learn 
for homework. Simply key in the 
words or phrases together with their 
corresponding translations and you 
have an interactive tutor/test. 



Grown-ups' Answer Back 

AS Issue 3 carried a full review of 
the Kosmos Answer Sack Quiz 
series. Don't forget that the 'junior' 
shell can be used for the 'senior' 
question list disks too. These 
supplementary disks are around 
GCSE level - in other words, hard 
enough to tax most adults, never 
mind the kids! 



Having drilled to your 
satisfaction, it is time for the nitty- 
gritty of the test mode. Here you are 
presented with a word or phrase 
from your chosen list and asked for 
the translation. This can be selected 
for either direction of translation. As 
a word or phrase is presented on- 
screen, your task is to type in the 
translation. If you haven't a clue 
(which happened a lot to me), simply 
pressing the [Help] key forces the 
program to display the next letter of 
the word for you. This is not an 



supplied (or created) word list can be 
shown sequentially or in random 
order. The number of entries to be 
taught or tested from a list can be 
selected, as can any section of the 
list. Thus you might create a list which 
contains progressively more difficult 
spellings or obscure relationships' and 
see how far you can make it before 
memory lets you down. 

The other languages available 
apart from Frenchare German, 
Spanish and Italian. With such a 
choice there's no excuse for not 
brushing up in time for your annual 
contemplation of the decor at 
Heathrow airport. 

Scrabble 

I've lost count of the number of times 
people have enviously said to me "I 
wish I could write, but I don't know 
the words to use." And my reply to 
them is - crosswords. Apart from 
filling in forms, most of us 
do little writing once we 
leave school, and so get 
out of the habit of varying 
our language. We don't 
notice when speaking that 
the same vocabulary crops 
up again and again - it's 
only when the words are 
transcribed onto paper 
that it becomes obvious. 

One way of building a 
good vocabulary is 
crosswords, but the best 
way is to play Scrabble. 
Set a competitive game up 
with a friend ond you'll 
soon be scanning the 



dictionary for the weirdest 
combinations of letters imaginable. 
Yes, I know that's strictly against the 
rules, but if you both agree to do it (I 
wonder if qwzxac is a word - can I 
look it up and see?) you'll be 
amazed at how many unlikely words 
exist. The computer version of 
Scrabble is identical to the board 
gome, with the great advantage of 
being able to play when there are no 
other humans around. 

Of course, you can also play 
against other humans if they are 
available, but that's more fun on a 
board if you have one. One of the 
beauties of playing a computer 
opponent is that you can cheat to 
your heart's content. If the computer 
doesn't know the word you have 
suggested it will ask "Are you sure?". 
Answer yes, and words like the 
example above will be trustingly 
accepted. Obviously, cheating is 
ridiculous if you really want to learn, 
but if you feel a little bashful about 
your vocabulary or spelling, playing 
against the computer at all hours with 
a dictionary to hand is a great way 
of building confidence in your own 
abilities, learning as you go and 
having lots of fun while you do it. It's 
much easier to power the computer 
down when it plonks an eight-letter 
word on two triple-word-squares than 
it is to kick your friend out when 
he/she does the same. 

Sim City 

Although billed as a game (which, of 
course, this magazine has nothing 
whatsoever to do with) Sim City is 
actually an excellent exercise in the 
reality of town planning, politics and 
logistics. Teenagers tend to be 
unaware of the bills paid by their 
parents and often have a rude 
awakening when they leave home. 
"Hey Mum - what's Poll Tax, and 
why has my electricity been cut off?" 
If your kids are likely to have you 
bailing them out, then this is just the 
program to teach them a little about 
responsible adulthood. Sim City has 
you acting as a Mayor. In order to 
avoid being kicked out of office you 
must keep the plebs happy, which 



involves zoning residential, 
commercial and industrial areas and 
setting the most efficient tax rate. 

The whole experience is a matter 
of balancing human and financial 
resources and can be fascinating to 
adults and teenagers alike. This 
game recently received an award for 
Simulation of the Year - and 
deserved it. From on educational 
point of view it is the sort of program 
that teaches by experiencing fun - 
the best way of all. CD 

oooooooooi 

Shopping List 



Weather Watcher 

What is h, Where is Htm 

Genisoft 

Unit 3 Poyle U 

Newlands Drive, 

Colnbrook. Berks 

SL3 ODX 

* 0753 680363 



....£24.95 
„.£19.95 



Better Maths 

School Software 

Toil Business Centre, 

Dominic Street, Limerick, 
Ireland 

» 010-353 6145399 

Scrabble 

Virgin Mastertronic 
16 Portland Road, 
London W1 1 4U 
« 071-727-8070 



£22.95 



.£19.99 



**•¥#***« 



£25.53 



jfffi u/y 

Infogrames 
18a Old Town, 
(lapham, 
London SW4 0LB 
tr 071 738 8199 

Sim City is also ovoiloble (or £29.99 
bundled together with Populous - a great 
strategy game with its own high 

educational value. 



tittittn 



French Mistress 

Kosmos 

1 Pilgrims Close, 

Harlington, Dunstable. 

Bedfordshire LU5 6LX 

« 05255 3942/5406 



*-»*»«* * »» [. I 7,7J 




ECKOUT 





Education 


Ease 


Flexibility 


Addiction 


Overall 




value 


of use 


factor 






Weather Watcher 


20 


20 


7 


15 


62/100 


What is it Where is 


it? 25 


20 


5 


20 


70/100 


Better Maths 


20 


24 


5 


15 


64/100 


French Mistress 


25 


24 


9 


15 


73/100 


Scrabble 


20 


20 


5 


20 


65/100 


Sim City 


15 


22 


5 


25 


67/100 





102 



AMIGA SHOPPER e ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1 99 1 



NEW AGE COMPUTING 



AMIGA 500 Special offer! 

Buy an Amiga from us, and we'll throw in the usual Screen Gems 
pack (with 1 meg RAM of course), mouse mat, disk cleaner and ALL 
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Computer LYNX - The Amiga Disk Magazine 

The action packed magazine ON A DISK! with demos, utilities, 

news, interviews, reviews and so much more than a normal disk! 

WE CANNOT EXPLAIN IT ALL HERE ■ SEND FOR A TASTERl 

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which YOU CONTROL 



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Whatever your age, whatever your subject 
- let your computer help you learn. 

Subjects include ... 

French, German, Spanish, Italian, English 

History, Geography, Science, General Knowledge, 

Football, First Aid, Sport. England, Scotland, 
Natural History, Junior Spelling and Arithmetic 



Available for most popular 
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31 



Kosmos are specialist producers of Educational 

Software designed to help you enjoy learning from your 

computer. Our programs even allow you to add your 

own lesson material. 



Write or telephone for a FREE 20-page BROCHURE 

of our Educational & Leisure software 

Pleas* state your computer type 



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Telephone 05255 3942 or 5406 



Af vcv> 




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New Amiga PD. Over 700 disks in stock, only 95p per disk. 

Phone or write for details/catalogue. Latest demos from Static Bytes Party. 

Call for low prices on PC 286's, 386's, 486's, prices from £899 + VAT 






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FOR 1 CMSK GUARANTEE 

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000+ Cai for West prices 
Prices reJuteVAT/b*© 



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Prices nciude VAT/pAo 



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PHILIPS MONfTOR 

CM8833 MM 

£205 



tfip* 100 sheets 



MT C 

50 5.25' DS/DD £10.25 

100 5.25' DS/DD 120 

500 5.25' DS/DD 
1000 5.25* DS/DD ...1190 
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100 5.25' DS/HD 135 

200 5.25' DS/HD £67, 

500 5.25' DS/HD. ...£165 
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£14 



TDK BRANDED 
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3.5' DS/HD. 111.00 
3.5' DS/HD 12150 

3.5" DS/HD ..150.00 



AMIGA DISK DRIVE 

£57.50 



Po«oBo, 150 

S14.95 



3.5" DISK BOXES 
3.5' 40 cap. £4.10 
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Posso 150 cap. 
stackable 114.95 



5.25" DISK BOXES 

50 cap 15.10 

100 cap £5.90 



STAR LC-200 

COLOUR PRINTER 

£205 



o 

o 



o 

< 



AMIGA SPECIALS 



A500 1299 

Screen Gems 1350 

Amiga 1500 1650 

Screen Gems 1Mb 1355 

Class of the 90's 1460 Tcnstar ^mes Pack 130 



First Steps 1499 

Amiga 1500 + 

1084S monitor 1895 



AMIGA ACCESSORIES 

Naksha mouse -£22.50 

Star LC 10 Ribbon 13.65 

Colour ribbon X6 

4-play games adaptor £5 

A590 hard drive + 2Mb RAM£380 Mouse mat 12.75 

Add £3.65 p&p. Add £4 3 day delivery. Add £10 next day. Cheques will be held for clearance 



Cumana drive .£60 

l/2Mb + clock 130 

l/2Mb no clock 127 

A590 hard drive.... 1290 



JOYSTICKS 

Printer lead .£8.00 

1000 lab€ls -O.00 Quickshot TAirbo 111 17.50 

Port ext. lead .£5.00 Zipstick 111.00 

J/stick ext. lead ,£5.00 JetFighter 112.00 



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to 



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UJ 



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o 



103 




ASOO Options from 314.99 

ASOO 1 Mes Screen Germ 382.99 

X) Fma Steps 462.99 

A1SOO Opnorsfrom 66999 

*,«J00 16MM2 . 40Mb HO 5091 .99 
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A300095MM 

'AbHD WW.W 

iWSCotour^ 9S4.99 

uync 43999 

A3*! .ODhoiMtfom J89 99 

lMC35"Dnw W99 

I *am frpar&orvClock * 
A5» TV ModuWor 24 99 




-iivoo* 









■rn Swift 24 
Swift 9/24 Colour Kit 
Star LC-10 
St*rLC94-10 
SUrlC-900 
Star LC24-900 
StarLC'M-SOOCotCM 

■ *no 1Mb 3 5* Drivr. 
(toctec1Mb3.S'Dr..v. 
MSOH Ram E*p*s*" 
AT Once 

HKKN Camera &LCT« 
D19MCW 
Vidi Amiss * v»di Owome 

NMSBSpntte 
VkJi Colour Solution 
Golden Image Scarvier 
M^igen 

GpnlryV * Worn* T.lat 
De&gnerMMe* 

<tMo6c 
AM' 
Audio Engineer Pius 

Mnrtrreound 

Perfect Sound 



: >":-,*-- Racfcbal 



5*4 99 

UV99 

194.99 

187 99 

284.99 

34.99 

141.99 

199.99 

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239.99 

29999 

54 99 

..59 99 

34 99 

179.99 

224 99 

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114.99 

59 99 

159.99 

179 99 

102.09 

13009 

109.99 

161.99 

71.99 

17999 

.2999 

4999 

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Marconi Trackball 
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3 $'40 Capacity Bo» 
35"80CapecffyB« 

10*SonyBu*35" 
SO - Sony Bulk 3.5' 
100 x Sony Bulk 35* 
iOnSonyMrXSDD3.5" 

io»tdkmwod:<5'. 



4799 

.699 

490 

;o9 

899 
499 
699 

599 

■ 
44 90 

999 
099 




AcMnced A/TM98 Save 


1895 


m ft03.G0V" 


3245 


GraphtCsProg 


18 45 


Amiga AppJtcatfons 


1695 


id Ass Lang Prog 


14 45 


ia Base In/Out 


18.95 


iaCAdv frog 


3245 


• C ft* Begmnere 


1845 


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14.95 


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1845 


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14.95 


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1845 


* Desktop Video GO* 


1845 


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27.95 


Arntgo for Begmners 


1295 


• Grapncs kvOut 


»45 


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H 


Amiga Mach Lang. Gde 


21.95 


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14 05 


^ Handbook Vc 


24.95 


• Prog Handbook Vol 2 


2395 


Compute ' Prog Gde 


745 


Wtbc * Prog GOC 


..0.45 


•»OM Kernel Man Auto... 


.28 95 


" BOM Kemd Man t | 


995 


• Sy^ie/n Prog Gde 


32 95 


Becomming an " A/-. ■ 


18 45 


Beynnem Gde to ' 


16 9S 


Computes 1st Boot ■ 


1695 


Corncuto 2nd Boot ' 


1695 


Elementary* Base 


14 05 



nude • Grapftcs 1695 

Kh35 & the Amiga 1595 

Mapping the Amiga 20.95 

Mate*'.. Amiga DOS 2 17 95 

Prog Gde to Amrga 23.95 

• "">dtcates Amiga tn Kte 
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UserGiKJe 

^ogfamming the 68000 93 95 
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40 Great Right S»ms , , 1395 

40 More Great Flights 14.95 

40 Great SubAdv* 1395 

F19SteaW> Air Combat 1405 
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Falcon Air Combat 14 95 

fiignt Sim Odyssey 14 95 
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Jet Fighter Schoo !i 

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Leam tony Fbght S«ri 14 95 

SuOCommanoW 1295 

Ta* Off flights 15 05 

Up* Run -light Sim .895 



WORD PROCESSORS 



enceS 
K«dwords2 
Pen W 
Pretext V5 
Pro Write V3.1 
QuiCkwiiV 

^le Platinum 
Trarawnte 
*t*d 0e**ect - 



9099 

35 05 

6295 

10*9! 

.102.95 
, 37.95 
. 49.95 
3105 
10295 



DESKTOP PUBLISHING 



1 Disk Type 
Outline Forits , 
Pagesenw 11 
Pssestream V2 1 
Evocfos 
ProceMionfll Page V2 



each 31 95 
0995 
45 95 

139 95 
2195 

19995 



DATABASES 



K-Dolo J5 95 

Prodata 5595 

Superbase Personal 26 05 

Superbase Perse* 2 6495 
Six«rbase Professional 
Superbase Professional 4 



SPREADSHEETS 



Advantage 
DGCafc 

Superpian 



7505 

■ 
5195 
64 95 



ACCOUNTS 



«->. 



*C>nbo 47 95 

..'• '«•■*- -■ SOS 

Final Accounts .V05 

HomeAccouits y095 

Pencil r%i Manager 22 95 

System >95 



MUSIC/AUDIO 



AudtomMtrl 

Bars&Pc<s 

L> Pi Copyist App. 
Dr T *, Copyist DTP 
DrT'sKCS 






Dr Ts KCS Level II 

>T'5MRS 

L> V% T.ger Cub . 

MugK<an 

Music X. 

Quartet 

Sequencer One ... 

•■'.'■ 









■ 



47 

172.95 

. 76.95 

201 95 

169.95 

249.95 

5195 

B4 95 

25.95 

99.95 

3595 

74 95 

.35.95 



LANGUAGES 
COMPILERS ETC 



AMOS 






^*— '■ •*■ ■ - ■»■* ■' ■< l»» 


33 05 


Devpac2. . 

GFA Basic V3 SCompilr 

GFA Basic V3.5 Interpreter 


4105 

.23 95 

3995 

54 95 


Hisoft Ewerd 
K-Seha Assemoter 
SAS'Latt<e>CV50i 


1495 

3S95 

174 OS 


UTILITIES 


Crow COS 

Dtskmaster 
G8Boiitr 


2195 

•>95 

:'■ ft 
i95 


TITLING/irraCTW 
PRESENTATION 


B-g AA Scroller 


42 OS 


Broadcast TtUer 2 

Home Title 


399 OS 

34 95 


Hyperflook 
Pro Titler 

Title Page 
TV Shew v2 


. 5495 

326 95 

38995 

134 95 

56 95 


TV Text Professional 
Video Effects 3D 


94.95 
134 95 


VKfco Title* iD 


78 95 



CAD 3D GRAPHICS/ 
ANIMATION 






A/T 

*f jvpanment 
Art Department fro 
Deluxe Paint ill 
Deluxe Print 11 
Deluxe VKleo in 
DeSignWarks 

■ 
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Draw 40 



OS 95 

59 95 

134 95 

59 9S 

15 9S 
74 95 
Cat) 
9705 
84 05 
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EDUCATIONAL 



Al0Tar«KiUe» 98 00 

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ft, falcon J150 

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Mjg 90 Fulcrum 94 99 

P(Ol jN . . BB.99 

Team Yankee 91.50 

UMS 9150 

Betw Matns 1fi-16 ys 1 9.95 

BenerSpelltrgO«8 19 05 

fun School 9 Under 6. 14.95 

FunSchool96-8 1495 

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Fun School 3 Under 5 1795 

FunSehcoi3S-7 1795 

Fm School 3 CXrr 7 17 95 

Mage Moths 4-6 yrv 19 95 

Maths Mania 8-19 yra 1995 
M Beacon Teaches Typing . 9S.95 

Mega Maths A-leve! 90 95 

Mtoo Englrsh GCSE 90 95 

Micro French GCSE 9095 

Micro Maths GCS£ 9095 

Pnmary Maths 3-19 >-s 9005 

Prof Looks at Wyds 1995 

Prof Makes Sentences. 1995 

Prof Plaw a New Game 1995 

Spell Book 4-9. 14 95 

The Three Sears 1995 

TNngstootowrthMjmben 1495 

ThratodowNhUtords U9S 



o 
o 



o 

< 



a. 
O 

CO 

3 



104 



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e 


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5 1 '4"DS/DD 96/48 TPI 


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BUSINESS 




1/ » ^ 



BEGINNERS 

'start here 



What is a database? 

Very simply, a database is a 
program used to store, retrieve 

and arrange information. 

Databases find homes almost 
everywhere - typical examples of 
home applications include 
catalogue! of record collection*, 
recipe books and telephone 
address books. Nevertheless, I 
have yet to meet anyone who 
actually uses a database to keep 
track of their record collection or 
favourite gourmet meals. 

In the office databases really 
come into their own. They are 
used to keep track of stock, 
employees' pay, holidays, 
customers, invoices, accounts and 
so on. The list is almost endless. 
In fact many applications, 
conventionally thought of as 
requiring customised software, 
can be created with powerful, 
programmable databases such as 
Superbase Professional 4, the 
subject of this review. 

I've seen many different 
databases. How do they work ? 

Databases primarily come in two 
flavours: the older, flat file design 
and the newer, more powerful 
and complex relational type. 
Also, relational databases are 
more expensive and rarer 
because they are inherently more 
complex to program. First 
though, a closer look at how flat 
file systems work and what they 
are used for. Such systems were 
the first to appear because they 
were closer to the real world of 

continued on pogc 106 



In the first of a two-part review, 
Mark Smiddy examines the 
data handling capabilities of 
Precision Software's recently 
upgraded Superbase Professional 




"A cost effective and easy-to-use 
database is an essential part of 
any efficient business. How does 
Precision's Superbase 4 live up 
to such demanding 
requirements? Let's find out." 

Mark Smiddy 




here is little doubt that 
Superbase has come a long 
way since its early days on 
the Commodore 64. In 1986 
it took the conventional ideas of 
database systems and turned them 
upside down. Pioneered by Simon 
Tranmer and Dr Bruce Hunt, 
Superbase Amiga was the first system 
in the world to have a control panel 
resembling a video recorder. 
Although the control system was 
nothing extraordinary (start and end 
of file, next record, previous record 
and so on) its appeal was the 
simplicity it offered to novice users. 
Moreover, it was arguably the most 
powerful database system available 
for home micros, featuring powerful 
one-to-one relational search and 
reporting functions; with the added 
bonus of graphics support. 

Power failure 

Nevertheless, Superbase was 
anything but perfect for power 
applications. It lacked proper form 
layout, essential for office use in 
which speed and simplicity are 
paramount, and it lacked 
programmability. So, where tailor- 
made database applications were 
called for, Superbase was caught 
napping. Precision remedied this with 
the release of Superbase Professional 
which incorporated a powerful form 



editor and a customised database 
languoge, DMl. This catapulted the 
product into the big league, where it 
could vie for a place alongside such 
PC database managers as dBase IV, 
dBMan, Clipper ... the list goes on 
and on. But Superbase is still the 
user's database, tailored with a 
graphical user interface and, that 
implies, the Amiga very 
much in mind. 

Looking to the ever 
expanding PC market. 
Precision put Superbase 
on to the PC and ran it 
under Microsoft's GEM 
basher, Windows. The 
application lavished ease 
of use on adoring fans 
and received yet more 
improvements - Precision 
is not a firm to be found 
resting on its laurels for too long. The 
PC application has returned to its 
roots and Superbase Professional 4 
has returned to the Amiga. 

The Superbase range for the 
Amiga comprises a series of three 
relational database systems. Much of 
this review will concentrate on their 
features and detail the differences. If 
you are new to databases, or 
relational systems in general, consult 
the Beginners box first 

In essence, the three products 
comprise the following: a simple. 



entry4evel database called 
Superbase Personal - probably the 
most powerful available at the price - 
a more powerful system with limited 
programming facilities on entry forms 
called Superbase Personal 2, and 
finally the professional system - the 
subject of this review. 

Superbase Professional is fully 



1 ■■ 

1 ■ J 


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[J Last Record 
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1 

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First Record 
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; Previous Record 
i Redo Display 


► 1 


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Firstname 1 


Lastname i 


Town i 


District ! 
County | 




Postcode 1 


Telephone |_ 





A typical input layout for a flat file address database system 



Superbase & simple tape recorder- 
style control panel buttons. 

programmable and incorporates an 
object-oriented forms designer. Unlike 
many major packages. Superbase 
comes on a single program disk with 
another disk of examples and is 
accompanied by two enormous ring- 
bound manuals that weigh in at 
almost 6lbs. It requires 1Mb of RAM 
and works best with at least 2Mb 
and a BIG hard disk - the size of 
which, in part, determines the size of 
database from o theoretical limit of 
1 ,000 million records. 

It is easy to see that no-one is 
going to ieorn how to use Superbase 
Professional overnight, although it is 
fair to soy that most people can get o 
flat-file database running in a matter 
of hours, even with a simple form 
background. Setting up a compete, 
multi-file relational application with 
multiple entry forms is something else 
again. It takes trial, error and, more 
often than not, programming. 

on pog« 106 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1991 



105 



U S I N E S S 



CMtMwd from pogc 105 

The first step in designing any 
database is defining the field list. This 
is one of Superbase's strongest and 
yet weakest areas. On the plus side, 
creating and selecting field types is a 
doddle thanks to a wide variety of 
options and a good requester. On 
the minus side, mistakes can be 
somewhat tricky to correct. For 
instance, when fields are being 
added and edited, it is easy to 
change a field name accidentally. In 
fairness, Superbase is just trying to 
be helpful, but my 'tame beginner' 
Found this feature confusing. Also, the 
field lists' order cannot be changed 
once it has been defined. 

First base 

Entering and viewing data is simple 
enough and exactly the same as in 
Personal, provided you don't want to 
fiddle around designing an input 
form. Forms are useful for enhancing 
visual appeal, but Precision could 
have included help screens to help 
new users around the trick bits. 

Searching the database is a 
doddle if you're looking for indexed 
records, but finding specific groups 
requires the use of a filter; thus 
Superbase' s infamous filter requester 
takes the stage. It looks tricky at first, 
but surprisingly complex filters can be 
arranged with the minimum of fuss. 
Typically a simple filter might read: 
CITY = "LONDON" OR CITY = 
"MANCHESTER" OR CITY = "LIVERPOOL" 



In other words, display all the records 
when the CITY is Liverpool, 
Manchester or London. Using the 
LIKE operator with wildcard pattern 
matching, much more complex 
relations can be achieved, ie: 

LASTNAME LIKE *[A-M]*" 

Displays only those records whose 
lastname fields begin with A through 
to M. Similarly, to do a postcode 
search on all the addresses in the 
Cleveland area: 

POSTCODE LIKE "TS*" 

and combining the two would give: 

LASTNAME LIKE "[A-M]*" AND 
POSTCODE LIKE "TS*" 

Such filters, when combined with 
labels and mail merges, can be 



effectively used to target a mailshot to 
clients in any particular area. 
Provided you have a postcode 
directory to hand, the search can be 
as wide or as narrow as you choose. 
The same idea could be used in an 
accounts' control system to search for 
people whose payments are overdue. 
Or in a stock control systems to 
monitor items that are 
under/overstocked and the demand 
for each one. 

Selecting the Query option brings 
up a deceivingly simple requester, 
but this is the most complex part of 
the system. Although it only 
comprises four major lines, even 
experts agree that it's a beast to 
learn. The results are worth the extra 
effort because it is here the relations 
come to life. Certainly, there is no 



St 



Customers 



Name 



Address 
Postcode 
Customer ID 



Accounts 



Account code 
Balance Now 
Overdue 
Due on 
Credit limit 



An example of a simple one-to-one relational database system 



Superbase Field Types 



The following list it a description 
of the field types supported in the 

Superbase range: 

Text: Basic alphanumeric 
characters - each field holds from 
1 to 235 characters (4,000 in Pro 
4). Auto-capitalisation is available 
in Personal 2 and Professional 4 
as well as multiple response (MR) 
fields. These allow one field to 
hold several items of data, 
although they are only really 
useful in fully (DML) 
programmable applications. 

Numeric: Integer and floating 
point values in many different 
formats, including currency and 
exponent. The number of digits 
can be customised. 

Date: Holds dates in several 
different formats, from short 
numeric: 12/2/91, to 
alphanumeric: 12 February 1991. 

External: IFF picture fields. 
Personal 2 also supports text and 
Professional 4 supports sound 
samples. Picture fields can be 
incorporated into forms in 
Professional 4 only. 



Calculation: A calculated field. 
This is useful for creating fields 
which are automatically created 
when the database is created or 
modified. Typical uses are for 
inventing customer numbers or for 
calculating prices including tax. 

Required: This is a field modifier. 
The user must enter something in 
a required field before Superbase 
will accept the record. 

Validated: Also a field modifier, 
this allows you to check for, say, 
a range of pre- determined values. 
Typical uses are for range 
checking numeric data to ensure it 
falls within preset limits. 

• The following field types are 
only supported in Superbase 
Personal 2. 

Constant: This is yet another 
form of calculated field, but the 
calculation is only mode when the 
record is first created. A typical 
application would be for date 
stamping a record. Constant fields 
can be edited unless they are 
made read-only. 



Read Only: This modifier will 
prevent the user from changing 
data within any affected fields. 
This prevents accidental 
modification of calculated 
(including constant) fields. 

Time: Like the date function, this 
provides time fields with a variety 
of formatting options including 12 
and 24-hour clock. 

• The following field types are 
only supported in Superbase 
Professional 4. 

Logical: The logical field type is a 
modifier to the Text field. These 
can only hold one character, 
which must be Y, N, T or F {Yes, 
No, True or False). A simple DML 
program can be used to expand 
these to more meaningful values 
when used in forms. 

Virtual: This field type does not 
actually exist in the database on 
disk as such. It performs a 
calculation which is executed each 
time an individual record is 
opened. Surprisingly, it is possible 
to index on such fields. 



■wed from page 105 

\ card index files, or 
\ the computerised 
w r Rolodex of client 
addresses. Each flat 
file 'card' is a single record made 
up of simple fields containing 
names, addresses and telephone 
numbers. A typical card may look 
like the one shown at the bottom 
of page 105. Here, a simple set of 
data can be added to each field 
and each card saved as a record. 
Typically, such antiquated 
systems store the entire file in 
memory so the maximum 
number of records is limited by 
the amount of free store. 

Bock in the real world, this 
simple system is sometimes 
enhanced by holding records on 
disk and creating a separate 
index file. This is maintained by 
the system and is totally 
transparent to the user. The 
concept of an index, although 
simple, is often hard to grasp. The 
idea goes something like this: 
when records are entered, 
usually by a DP (Data Processing) 
clerk in an office, they are input 
in no particular order - literally, 
as each card/form is taken from 
a pile rt is entered. This is 
sometimes called natural order. 

Now, imagine you have a 
database of 20,000 people and 
want to find Fred Bloggs. (For the 
sake of argument, let's say Mr 
Bloggs' information is stored at 
record number 14,521.) If you 
know where his information is by 
record number it would be 
simple, but the database would 
also be pointless. Therefore, you 
would execute a search of the 
data looking for a record 
containing the name 'Fred' (in 
firstname) and 'Bloggs' (in 
lastname). Even on a 25MHz 
A3000 with a nippy hard disk 
this could take hours, which is 
where indexing comes in. 

In the same way as you 
would use the index in a 
reference manual to find a 
relevant page or pages, a 
database can locate a record by 
its index number. It is achieved 
something like this: imagine each 
record is a page in a book. Just 



106 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1991 



BUSINESS 



V 



as every page in a 
V book has a page 

i number, so every 
single record in a 
database has its very 
own unique number. 

As the data is entered, one or 
more fields can be used to 
construct a number. The actual 
maths of this is irrelevant, but this 
number can be used to point to a 
record (page), just like the index 
in a book. This coded reference - 
called a key - is attached to each 
record number and recorded in a 
separate file, referred to as an 
index file. To find a record, all 
you have to do is enter the key 
code - eg the lastname. The 
database then cross-references 
that to the the record number and 
goes straight to it. 

So what happens if two or 
more records have the same 
record key? Say you are creating 
an index of surnames. There 
might only be one Smiddy, but 
there will be many Jones, Smiths 
and so on. Although the names 
generate the same key, the list of 
record numbers is unique for 
each one. All the database has to 
do is search for numbers that 
match the value and then display 
the appropriate records. 

So what practical use is a 
database tome? 

Well, if you're a football fan you 
might want to keep tabs on your 
local league's performance over 
several years. In a one-to-many 
relational database, the 'one' file 
contains a list of all the teams in 
the league - colours, manager, 
players etc. The 'many' file 
contains the performance figures 
for each team over a period of 
years - games played, won, lost 
and so on. This can be done with 
a Hat file, but it would be 
inefficient and difficult to manage 
because each club record would 
be limited to a fixed number of 
year-end statistics. 

By constructing a one-to- 
many relation, there is no limit to 
the number of years of club 
performance statistics that can be 
entered. Each year is a separate 

continued on page 108 



Customers 



Accounts 



Jonos, D avid 

Amiga Shoppor 

BATH 

FUT-00 1 



ASP-021 



£100 



£2000 



12/1/01 



1 



Record 1 



£2500 



DTB-102 




£0 



£0 



12/4/91 



£2000 



This is how a relational one- 
to-many model relates to the 
real world. 



FUT-00 1 



£1200 



£0 



12/4/91 



£5000 




Record 2 



J 




Record 3 




guide like experience. The manual's 
examples only provide a starting 
point. Thankfully, it is possible to save 
complex queries for later use. 

Query requester 

In essence, things splits up as follows: 
the top of the requester has space to 
define a report title, a date and page 
numbers - these are added 
automatically by Superbase. 

At the bottom, five radio buttons 
allow you to choose exactly how the 
query is output: 

Screen: displays the query on- 
screen. This is mainly used during the 
testing stage and is its default. You 
can expect to do a lot of this because 
learning how to perform Queries is 
almost like learning a new language. 



Printer: is primarily intended for 
printing final reports. Output is sent to 
the currently selected printer using 
either Superbase's internal settings or 
the Preferences printer. 

Disk: creates a text file on disk. This 
option is intended for either creating 
a report for later use or for import 
into a DTP package. Systems such as 
Pro Page support the use of style 
TAGs (Text Attribute Groupings) and, 
by incorporating these into the query 
definition, the report can be 
formatted and typeset automatically. 

File: creates a completely new 
database based on the information 
and fields defined in the query. The 
new file can be used by Superbase 
as if it had been created manually. 



JARGO 




BUSTING 



DML 



Field: 
Fieldname: 

File: 
Flat File: 

Record: 

Relational: 



Databose Management Language. A programming language, not 
unlike Rcjsk used to customise Supmrbatm forms or even write 
complete new database systems. 

A single item of information, or the area in which that information is 
stored. See Field Types. 

The name of a field used <** an aide-memoire to its contents. Fields can 
hove just about any norm - A, B , X YZ but names reflecting a field's 
contents. Name, Address, Postcode, etc, are more useful. 

A group of records stored on disk. 

A type of database in which eoch record is an individual entity - 
typically eoch work * like a single card on a Rolodex. See beginners 
Start Here fer m*c« info* 



SQL 



A group of on* or mora field*. 

A data bat* in which each record can procost information from several 
drfforant data filot timultanoouftly. Relational tyttomi can bo 
configured at flaf-filc> if neceisary. See Beginnor* Start Hero for mort 
information. 

Structured Query Language. A new approach to database management 
by which the lyttom it controlled by a language that approximates 
to fnglith mora closely than over before. Thii it not supported at 
present by any Amiga syttoms, but it it boliovod to bo on the horizon. 



Say: what? They can't be serious. 
Imagine what the voice synthesiser 
makes of foreign addresses. 

Fields: is used to determine which 
fields are selected from the current 
file (or files for mult-file queries). 
Output defaults to a tabular layout, 
but a page layout is available for 
more complex reports. Column 
headings are normally token from the 
field names, but again, these are user 
definable. In this box you will be able 
to specify: column heading, and 
position; the width of fields; blank 
likes; calculated expressions; printing 
styles; conditional form feeds; one 
field per line; and inclusion of 
selected field list. 

It is possible to edit the text 
(program) directly, but much easier to 
get Superbase to do some of the 
work for you. Clicking the fields 
button brings up the query fields 
requester and from there you can 
select the fields and files you want to 
use. Of course, the files must be 
opened first for this to work. (Once a 
query definition is saved and 
reloaded, Superbase attempts to 
open any required files for you.) 

At the simplest level, you would 
just select a set of fields to work with 



"The power of 

relational data 

bases leaves flat 

files standing" 



and Superbase will tabulate them 
automatically, adding comma 
separators for you. This is a point- 
and-shoot operation, and thus very 
fast. Interestingly, as in BASIC, the 
semi-colon can be used to suppress 
extra spaces. 

Live calculations: gives derived 
values that are particularly 
interesting. You can get the query to 
work out current results or pre-format 
field widths 'on the fly'. 

For example, to add VAT and fix 
the number of decimal places: 

FIX (Prices. Items * VAT, 2) 

Or to calculate a month in advance: 

Date. Invoices + 30 

and to customise the date by using a 
formatting string to override the 
default settings: 

DATES (DAYS (Date. Invoices ♦ 
30),*0d-irfn-yyyy") 

• 

Even comment text fields of up to 
4000 characters in length can be 
printed - complete with automatic 

Mpogt 108 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1 99 1 



107 



U S I N E S S 



con Hutted from page 107 

word wrapping - using the TRIMS 
function like this: 

TRIMS (Comments . BobData ) 

Report: enables the inclusion of 
Superba$e'i extensive reporting 
facilities, such as SUM, MEAN and 
so on. 

Filter: allows for the selection of 
records using a customised filter and 
the creation of the relations for multi- 
file reports, Relations are creoted 
between two or more files with the 
equality operator - remembering that 
all fields must be indexed. Also, 
relations must make sense. It is not 
reasonable to relate four files using 
two different keys. 

Syntactically, a relation in 
Superbose is set up like this: 

Number. Cu^ = Code. Orders 

Here, for every number key in the 
Customers database, the 
corresponding record or records are 
retrieved from the Orders database 
using the code key. Multiple relations 



Thank you luwies, 
thank you 

I am indebted to the following for 
their help in the production of this 
article. Phil Moore for the artwork, 
Dave and Michelle Stebbings for 
cordon bleu inspiration, and Pat 
Winstanley for being a tame 
beginner. Also, thanks to Perry 
and Rue at Precision Software for 
1 on the finer points. 



Customers 



are achieved simply with the AND 
operator: 

Number. Customers = Code. Orders 
AND Code. Orders = Code. Stock 

It is easy to see how this may confuse 
the filter expression. For instance, in 



Name 

Address 

Postcode 



Customer ID 



Accounts 



Orders 



Account code 
Cat Number 
Price 
VAT % 



a stock control system you might want 
a report on which items are falling 
below the minimum stock level and 
those that are being ordered by 
customers on a regular basis. This 
might involve the relation between 
the Customers and Stock databases 
in addition to the logic concerning 
high/low stock levels. Superbase 
handles this with the OR operator 
which, as you may know, also 
doubles as AND. This example uses 
OR in its native form: 

Code. Stock = Code. Orders AND 
(InStock. Stock >= Max. Stock 
OR InStock. Stock <= 
Min. Stock) 

Order: Sets the sorting order. 
Generally, many applications will be 
sorted on a single indexed field - 
lastname for example. However, this 
gadget also supports multi-level 
searches so data can be divided and 
grouped, even across several files. 



Superbase Help 

Superbase users now have their own support group which 
offers a bi-monthly magazine, a telephone helpline, regular 
meetings and even a bulletin board service. 
Membership is available on three levels: 

Corporate (large companies): £260 +VAT 

Small Business (up to 25 employees): CI 00 + VAT 

Individuals, charities and education: £50 + VAT 

The BBS, which has limited public access, is on: 

081-339-0096 
Protocol: 8-N-l 
Speeds: V21, 22, 22bi$, V32, V42 bis and MNP 1-5 

For more information call Gerry Rogers, « 081-339 0834 



Account code 
Balance Now 
Overdue 
Due on 
Credit limit 



A more complex one-to-one and 
one-to-many relation. In this 
example, the many' file is the list 
of items ordered by each client. 
No matter how many or how few 
items a customer orders, the one- 
to-many relation will handle it. 
This allows for stock and credit 
control at the push of a button. 



These ore just a few examples of the 
many possibilities Superbase has to 
offer in Query. There are literally 
hundreds of ways of arranging, 
searching, ourputting, updating and 
reporting on data. To describe each 
one in detail would take up the whole 
review, which suggests a better entry 
method could be devised for such 
quick queries. I'd like to see better 
use made of the graphic interface to 
make queries easier; perhaps some 
sort of flowcharting method by which 
you could drop files and fields into 
little boxes. The mechanics of Query 
have changed very little since it was 
first devised and, given its inherent 
complexity, something should be 
done to make it easier. 

Anyway, that's enough for this 
month. In our September issue I will 
be looking more closely at the forms 
editor and the Database 
Management Language, plus giving 
full checkout ratings for each aspect 
of this application. See you then. f^-j 

ooooooooo 

Shopping List 

Superbase Professional £41 1.20 

Supplier: Precision Software 
6 Park Terrace, Worcester Park, 
Surrey KT4 7JZ 
■ 081 330 7166 

Also available: 

Superbase Personal £40.82 

(basic, but very good) 

Superbase Personal 2 £102.1 1 

(very similar to Pro, but locks the form 
designer and DML) 

• Prices quoted are inclusive 
of VAT at 17.5% 




St 



V record in the 
^ Statistics file. One 

club may have two 
years of history, 
another may have eight. But the 
database can retrieve as many or 
as few of the records as have a 
matching index key. This is where 
the power of relational databases 
leaves the flat file-type standing. 
Moreover, this is not just a 
contrived example. This system is 
used by Bruce Smith, Editor of 
Burlington non-league Football to 
keep up-to-date records on 
several hundred teams. 

Certainly databases are very 
versatile. They are responsible for 
things as diverse as junk mail 
and making sure everyone gets 
their Community Charge forms. 
This recent example is sad proof 
of the adage that computers do 
not make mistakes; people do, 
and the effect is often wide 
reaching. On a similar note, you 
can blame the ubiquitous use of 
databases for the millions of 
unwanted packages landing the 
on doormats of homes across the 
globe - each one targeted 
personally at the individual or 
home owner. Companies exist 
that specialise in compiling lists of 
such target groups and selling 
them to direct mail houses. This is 
legal, provided they are 
registered, but is still a nuisance. 

Confessions of a Computer 
Journalist quotes a tale in which 
two mailing lists got mixed up. 
Proprietors of certain specialist 
boutiques were amazed to 
receive a catalogue of surgical 
support garments. At the same 
time, an exotic lingerie catalogue 
got mailed to the residents of 
over 200 'Happy House' 
retirement homes throughout the 
United States. People who study 
the complex interplay of cause, 
effect and direct mailing, say this 
sort of thing happens all the time 
and the repercussions are 
impossible to quantify. 
Confessions of a Computer 
Journalist defines these analysts 
as: "mindless berks who 
wouldn't know a computer if you 
hit them with one." 



108 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1 99 1 



Just because you take your 
Amiga seriously, there's no 
reason why you shouldn't 
relax and enjoy yourself 
from time to time. 



All work 

play. . 





• Even when you're ploughing through the com- 
plexities of your latest machine code masterpiece, 
it's a good idea to take a break and relax. Heck, per- 
haps even play a game. 

• It's keeping a healthy balance between the seri- 
ous side of your computer and the more ... errm ... 
frivolous purposes of the dear machine that has 
made Amiga Format far and away Britain's, and 
possibly the worlds, most popular Amiga magazine. 

• So while the Screenplay section brings you the 
low-down on what to play \n your moments of idle- 
ness, you will also find nearly 20 pages of reviews 
covering the latest in hardware and serious' soft- 
ware across the whole Amiga scene. 

• There's the creative stuff, from a paint package that could 
rival DeluxePaint III to a hardware sound sampler from the 
people who make the best sampling software around. 

• There's also the practical stuff, including a whole heap of 

utilities to make life with a hard 

C'tAON "N. drive far safer and the cheap- 
/ £T If AJ I \ est memory expansion we've 

HANG OUT! 

And then there's a 
j<h whole lot more besides, from 
the latest thing in multimedia 
x presentation software, to edu- 
cational stuff to help the little 
uns learn. 

Plus, of course, there's the ever- 
dependable Workbench, answering 
your serious software queries and 
solving your hardware 
problems. 

• And - to save the best till 
last - a ground-breaking 
feature that tells you exactly how to 
get results in DTP. What more could you 
want? Don't miss itl 



IURBOTEXT 

lE3lia-i;siK-..lftf&alE]|S»lwt File to Open 







Except rtere expli 



Copyright g 1' 
All Rights Re 

Do not red is 

Amsa MorkBench pr 
Amga Inc. 



General 

This file presents 
documentation Mas 
release of the pro 



W) c 
MM) dews 



N> PMfS 

> Rexx 



Suppi" 



; disk are: 




J/98 



after the 
buffs found in thi 




...makes Jack 
a dull boy, 

tit? 




ever seen. 



^"•^VUf.^ ' 1* * Uxl'l^r I*** 




Amiga Format Issue 25 

on sale July 11 ■ £2.95 



USER GROUPS 





FEATURED GROUP: 
ICPUG MID-THAMES 

ICPUG Mid-Thames is the local group 
For Commodore users in South Bucks, 
East Berkshire and the West side of 
London. Meetings are held on the 
second Thursday of the month at the 
Cox Green Community Centre, south- 
west of Maidenhead, and start at 
7.30pm. Members come from 
Reading, Slough, Windsor, and 
Aylesbury. 

Topics include problem solving, 
such as printer interfacing, PD 
copying nights (only PDI), and guest 
speakers. Ring the secretary, Mike 
Hatt, on 0753 645728 (8pm- 1 1pm). 



Run a Group? 

For a free listing, send brief 
details of your user group to 
User Group List, Amiga 
Shopper, 30 Monmouth Street, 
BothBAl 2BW 




• USER GROUPS LIST • USER GROUPS LIST • USER GROUPS UST • USER 



Amiga Users Klub Windsor 
House, 19 Castle Street, Bodmin, 
Cornwall PL31 2DX. 
Meets every Friday from 6.30-9pm, 
to expand members' knowledge of 
Amiga computing and help with 
problems. Contact Jack Tailing. 

Amiga WinSam Users Group, 

85 Highfields Rd, Witham, Essex 
CM8 1LW 

Distributes tips and Basic programs. 
Keith Anderson t* 0376 518271 

Bask Programmers Group, 68 

Queen Elizabeth Drive, Normanton, 
West Yorkshire WF6 1JF 
A group set up to encourage the use 
of Basic, exchange ideas and assist 
those beginning with the language. A 
free newsletter can be got from Mark 
Blackalltr 0924 892106 

Chester-le-Street 16 Bit 
Computer Club, Conference Room 



2, The Civic Centre, Newcastle 

Road, Chester-le-Street. 

The club meets every Monday from 

7. 30-9. 30pm to see each other's 

software collections, exchange 

advice and tips. Contact Bob « 091 

2653671. 

Club Amiga, 5 Bowes Lea, Shiney 
Row, Houghton Le Spring, Tyne and 
Wear DH4 4PP. 

Membership costs £5 a year for a 
newsletter, PD software and a 24- 
hour telephone helpline service. For 
more info send a SAE to Chris 
Long ley. 

Independent Commodore 
Products Users Group, Biggin 
Hill Library, Church Road, Biggin 
Hill, Kent. 

Meets most Thursdays from 7.45- 
9.45pm. There are lecture nights and 
open nights where members can get 
help. Contact John Bickerstoff after 



8.30pm tr 081 6515436. 

The Pennine Amiga Club, 193B 

Oakworth Road, Keighry, West 

Yorkshire BD21 IRE. 

Offers free membership, free advice, 

and circulates a newsletter. 

Contact Simon Booth « 0535 

600437. 

Slim Agnus, 1 1 5 Brocks Drive, 

North Cheam, Sutton, Surrey SM3 

9UW. 

Meets on the last Thursday of the 

month. PD library, bulletin board, 

advice from Amiga experts. Contact 

Philip Worrel. 

Software Exchange Service, 13 

Bournville Lane, Stirchley, 

Birmingham, B30 2JY 

Offers a forum for exchanging old, 

unwanted gomes at a a small price. 

Contact Michael Pun « 021 459 

7576. 



fc 






to 

I/) 



to 



o 

O 

a. 



OSE„ s 

, Free PD Software " 

Six 100 Page Magazines 
Technical Advice - Discounts 
Send SAE for details to Jack S. 
Cohen PO Box 1309 London 







N3 2UT only £17 per year including 
a: joining FEE of £1 - We support all | 
o Commodore Machines with 
O software for each - Back issues for 
O 1990 £2 each - Overseas O 



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081-346-0050 

after 6.00pm 



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prices on request 

° J. N 3 a 



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TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE? KEEP READING ON 

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How about some great Articles and Reviews and even Free Competitions 

INTERESTED?... THEN WHY NOT TRY ISSUE No 2 OF 

S i A \ \ E It 



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PDU 52 F ish#52 A-Z Text Editor 
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PDU 70 Fish 1 93 Keymap Editor 

PDU 72 SID V1.06 The ultimate diskuM 

PDU 74 C Manual 

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PDU 80 Fonts and Surfaces 

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PDU 82 Scaic, Wordwnt© 

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PDU 101 Menu-Maker 

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PDU 118 Various CLIutils 

PDU 146 Grocery Wideo list maker 

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PDU 164 Games Music Creator 

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PDU 186 Falcon BootblockCreator 

PDU 189 Bootblock Copier 

PDU 194 Pman Virus Killer 

PDU 1 98 Synchro Packer V4.6 

PDU 200 Virus Killer Pro V2.0 

PDU207PorfoctSoundV1.93 

PDU257Fish#349MED 

PDU 262 MED Modules 



DEMOS 



PDD 1 Anarchy Demo 

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PDD 4 Deathstar Megademo(2 disks) 

PDD 7 Elvira Demo 

PDD 1 4 RAF Megademo(2 disks) 

PDD 16 Robocop Demo 

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PDD 31 Anarchy'Ooh its obscene lir 

PDD 5' Hacktnck#1 Arsewipe 

PDD 52 Hacktrick«2Smashmg day out 

PDD55Kefrens Megademo 8(2 disks) 

PDD 60 NttroAC Demos#22 

PDD 62 Nofthstar Megademo#2 

PDD 70 Rebels Megademo 

PDD 71 Red Sector Demo 

PDD 72 Red Sector Demodisk#4 

PDD 73 SAE Demos#23 

PDD 74 SAE Demos#36 

PDD 75 Scoopex Demos 

PDD 76 Scoopex Megademo 

PDD 90 Trilogy Demos»4 

PDD91 Trilogy Megademo#1 - 

PDD 93 TV/I Demo+Virus killer 

PDD 94 Vortex Megademo 

PDD 96 Magnetic Fields Demo#36 

PDD 97 Predators Megademo(2 disks) 

PDD 99 Semtex Megademo 

PDD 107 Budbram I (2 disks) 

PDD 1 1 5 Magnetic Fields Demo* 40 

PDD 1 16 Magnetic Fields Demo#41 

PDD 130 Chubby Brown 

PDD 131 CnonicsDemo 

PDD 1 32 Giants Megademo(2 disks) 

PDD 1 34 Magnetic F ields Demo»45 

PD0 1 38 Page One Demoa 1 

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PDD141 Page One Demo*4 

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ANIMATION 



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PDA 18 Miller Lite Advert 

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PDA 36 BFPO Slideshow#2(l8+) 

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PDA 49 Mayfair Vol.23 no3( 18+) 

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PDA 57 Newtek Demoreel3(2)(1 meg) 

PDA 58 Paradise Slideshow 

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PDA 68 Walker Demol (1 meg) 

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PDA 70 Walker Demo2( 1 meg) 

PDA 73 WestcoastCracker#4(i8*) 

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PDA 79 The Final Ecstacy#1 { 1 8*) 

PDA 80 Walker Demo 2(2 meg. 2 disks) 

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PDA 90 Bunsen Burner-Jet Fighter anim 

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PDA 93 D Landers Sci-fi Show»2 

PDA 95 Magiaan/Jogger Anims 

PDA 97 Mike Tyson Knockout disk 

PDA 1 06 Back to the Future II amms 

PDA 108 Adams Family 

PDA 110 Bruce Lee Enter the Dragon 

PDA 1 1 Bruce Lee Slideshow II 
PDA 1 1 2 Dragons Lair II Demo 
PDA1 14 Neighbours Sideshow 
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PDMSMusiclnva&onll 

PDM 4 Musk: Invasion 111(2 disks) 

PDM5MFI'ElectricCLIIV 

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PDM 9 Ride on time & Batdance 

PDM 1 9 Bad- M Jackson 

PDM 20 Bat Dance 

PDM 27 DMOB Megamus>c III 

PDM 28 Enemies Music III 

PDM 30 Digital Concert II 

PDM 31 Digital Concert III 

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PDM 35Thmk were atone now- Tiffany 

PDM 36 Land of Confusion -Genesis 

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PDM 40 MFI Vangehs Demo 

PDM 65 Digital Concert IV 

PDM 71 Noisepiayer V? 40 

PDM 72 Popeye meets the Beachboys 

PDM 80 Digital Concert VI 

PDM 82 Freddy Krugar 

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PDM 84 Madonna Hanky panky 

PDM 85 Miami Vice-Crockets Theme 

PDM 87 RIP Eruption 

PDM 88 Slab Music 

PDM 91 100 Most Remembered C64 tunes 

PDM95Hi-FiDemo 



PDM 104 
PDM 105 
PDM 106 
PDM 109 
PDM 110 
PDM 111 
PDM 112 
PDM 117 
PDM 118 
PDM 120 
PDM 125 
PDM 128 
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PDM 132 
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Mr Food (2 disks) 

NASPV2 

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PDG 1 Star TreK-FmalFrontier(2 disks) 

PDG 2 Star trek (3 disks.2 drives) 

PDG 5 Card & Board Games 

PDG 18 Marble Slide 

PDG 19 Destination Moonbase 

PDG 21 Bomg the Game (2 disks) 

PDG 26 Treasure Search 

PDG3iMona 

PDG 32 Legend of Farghail 

PDG 33 Arcad«(Breakout style game) 

PDG 34 Dynamite Dick 

PDG 35 Pair It 

PDG 36 Snakes & ladders/Reversi 

PDG 37 Super Quiz 



CLIP ART 



Thar* la a total of 10 disks in the clip 
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ESKTOP PUBLIS 






EX is a typesetting language 
which has been around on 
mainframes for more than a 
decade. It is now available 
for most micros, including IBM- 
compatibles, Macintoshes and 
Amigas. There is even a public 
domain version for the Atari ST. 
It is not a desktop publishing 
program but a typesetting program in 
which text must be coded in an editor 
or word processor before being 
compiled into a DVI (device- 
independent) file which can then be 
viewed in a Preview window or sent, 
via a driver, to your printer. The 
approach may seem rather primitive 
to devoted DTP-ers but it offers some 
advantages as we shall see. 

Amiga! ^X 

The Amiga implementation is far 
more than a port of TEX. Tomas 
Rokicki has taken full advantage of 
the Amiga's superior facilities to 
enhance the program's functionality. 
In particular, the multitasking 
operating system allows the TEX and 
Preview programs to be open 
simultaneously; TEX passing pages to 
Preview as they are parsed. Both TEX 
and Preview support ARexx, so the 
possibilities of linking them to other 
programs are immense. 

Depending upon the printer 
drivers you order, you could receive 
30 or so disks. Don't be alarmed. 
These are mostly bitmapped fonts at 
different sizes and resolutions. 

Why use AmigaTEX? 

If you want to produce documents 
containing distorted type, complex 
visual effects or colour, you can 
forget AmigaTEX, but there are things 
that AmigaTEX can do far better than 
a DTP program such as Professional 
Page. TEX was written by a 
mathematician and if you want to set 
maths there's nothing to touch it. Try 
setting the example at the bottom of 
the page in Professional Page and 
see how long it takes. In TEX it takes 
about 20 seconds. 

TEX is also very smart about 
typographical matters. It's the only 
Amigo program that comes with 
small caps and ligatured letters (such 
osff, M, ffi). 



Peter Danckv/erts examines the 
latest upgrade of AmigaTEX - an 
application aimed at taking the 
trauma out of technical typesetting 




On November 14, 1885, Senator &r Mrs. Ldand Stan- 
ford called together at their San Francisco mansion the 
24 prominent men who had been chosen as the firct 
trustees of The Leland Stanford Junior University. They 
handed to the board the Founding Grant of the Uni- 
versity, which they had executed three days before. This 
document — with various amendments, legislative acts, 
and court decrees — remains as the University's charter. In 
bold, sweeping language it stipulates that the objectives of 



AmigaTEX operates differently from a normal DTP application. Text must 
be coded in a word processor before compilation in the preview window. 



Version 3.1a of AmigaTEX has a 
number of important new features. 
Most notable is the inclusion of the 
PD PostScript interpreter, Post, which 
permits the use of PostScript graphics 
and fonts. Virtual fonts are now 
supported, both for existing fonts and 
for PostScript ones. Virtual fonts in 
AmigaTEX are rather like 
Compugraphic outline fonts in PPage; 
the program will resize them to order 
(although it takes several minutes). 
They have the added advantage that 
you can construct a virtual font from 
several others. For instance, if you 
were perverse enough to wont 
Garamond text with Helvetica 
numerals, you could easily construct 
a virtual font to provide just that, 
saving you the trouble of changing 
fonts when you want to set numerals. 
PostScript fonts, if you have any, 
are easily converted to T£X format 
with the utilities provided. However, 
you will need a program such as 
Dos20os to convert the disk format 
first. Conversion is so smart that it 
can even produce small caps and 
ligatured letters for fonts that lack 
them. Once installed, they behave at 



least as well as the native Computer 
Modern faces, both with the 
Previewer and with printers. Type 1 
fonts are even rendered with 'hinting' 
(Adobe's font enhancement 
technique), so DeskJet output is 
comparable with that from a 
PostScript printer. 

Not just TeX 

If you install the complete package 
(apart from bitmapped fonts), you'll 
find that it takes up about six 
megabytes of hard disk space. That's 
because you haven't bought one 
program but about two dozen. Apart 
from AmigaTEX itself, there are the 
utility programs (programs for 
converting fonts, etc.), Post, LoTEX, 
SHTEX, BibTEX and Metafont. LaTEX 
is a less flexible, but easier-to-use, 
version of TfX; BibTEX is a 
referencing program to use with it. 

The most stunning part of the 
bundle is Metafont, a type design 
program with unlimited possibilities. 
However, you should not expect to 
be turning out new designs by the 
end of the week; Metafont, like TEX, 
is a text-based program. Each letter is 




OC 



t-ib 
t 2 + b 2 



iat 



ab 



e iat dt = e aD E l (ab), 



a, 6 > 



Laying out mathematical formulae in a conventional DTP application can be a nightmare, but not with AmigaTEX 



described in mathematical terms 
rather than drawn with a Bezier tool. 

What's up doc? 

Because TeX does not work with pull 
down menus, it is quite impossible to 
use without reading the 
documentation. AmigaTEX comes 
with o very substantial manual which 
is both lucid and witty, but it does not 
tell you how to use TEX. It tells you 
how to install and invoke the 
program, but TEX is such a complex 
program thot it needs a very big 
manual. That manual is The TEXbook 
by Donald Knuth, inventor of TEX. 

After-sales service is very good. 
We all know those software 
companies that ask you to register 
and then never answer the phone. 
Tomas Rokicki of Radical Eye 
Software isn't like that. He's only o 
phone call away and because it's his 
program he has all the answers. He 
also runs a bulletin board. Best of all, 
when you're least expecting it, 
AmigaTEX News pops through your 
letter box. It's only six pages, but is 
crammed with hints and news. 

Final solution 

If you have long documents to set, or 
if your text is interspersed with 
mathematical formulae, then you 
should consider this program. 

Those who know TeX on other 
systems will be impressed with this 
implementation, and those with an 
earlier version will find the new 
additions well worth having. TEX also 
benefits from a very wide user base; 
many university mainframes and 
some university presses (such as 
Cambridge University Press) support 
it and there is a very good TeX user 
group in the States. #T| 

OO^JOOOOOO] 

Shopping List 

AmigaTlXSAQ £95 

{plus £45 for printer driver) 
by Radical Eye Software, Box 2081, 
Stanford, California CA94309 USA 
rt 0101 415 3226442 

Distributed in UK by: 

Industrial Might & Logic 58 Cobden 

Road, Brighton BN2 2TJ 

w 0273 621391 

ThTiXBook 

Paperback ISBN 0201 134 489. ..£25.95 
Hardback ISBN 0201 134 470 

£31.95 

Published in UK by: 
Addison Wesley 




n 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1991 



113 



READER ADS 






Now you can reach thousands of fellow Amiga owners for only £5 



FOR SALE 



ProtextV4.2 £35, Prodoto 
VI .1 £30, System 3 £20, 
Mailshot £15, Photon Paint 
£5, all with manuals all good 
buys some to advanded for 
seller. « Karen on 0949 
838414. 

Latest Amiga 1 500 with 
software pack and modulator, 
also joystick , magazines and 
extra software worth over 
£200. Sell complete for 
£700 ono. » Blackpool 
0253 827387 after 6.00pm. 

Podscat Graphics Tablet for 
sale. Brand new only 1 
month "old with Driver 
Software £1 70. » Andy on 
081-440 0095 after 6pm 
Amiga and PC compatible. 

B2000 with Genlock 1500 
Commodore colour printer, 
Bridgeboard 20 meg hard 



drive, external 3.5 disk 
complete with manuals A-ID, 
four games many mags 
£1200 books, 1 meg Agnus. 
* Dave Coventry 0203 
415169. 

Quattro Dowty KC2422 
Modem complete with manual 
cost new £500.00 hardly 
used £200.00 ono. « 0706 
622135. 

Amiga Digi view gold 
version 4 digitising system 
£75. Panasonic VW1 410 
camera for the above £1 30 
both new and unused, * 
Leeds 562746. 

A 5 00+ PC board one meg 
external 3.5 plus excellent 
games, mouse, modulator. 
Boot disks included for £600. 
w for near offer or more info 
698 6692 answer phone. 

A2000 Micro Way flicker 



fixer boxed unused cost £265 games, joysticks, mags etc 
will accept £150. « Debbie 
0952 810959, 



PD to swap on a one to one 
basis please write with SAE 
Morton, 51 A King Street, 
Bridlington, East Yorks Y015 
2DN. 

Commodore 64 and 1541- 

II disk drive plus over £200 
software and datasette, and 
database program/utility. 
Asking price £250 ono. 
wDarren on 0256 29597 
(Basingstoke) after 3pm 

ICO Adram 540 clock and 
RAM expansion. Fitted with 
4MB. Expandable to 6MB. 
Supports 1MB chip RAM with 
fatter Agnus. Still in original 
box. £200. w Dave Golding 
0705 267540. 

Amstrad CPC464 with 
green screen monitor, 75 



£160 ono. «061 766 
8193. 

Amiga software-music x 1 . 1 
£30, textcraft plus w/p £20, 
turbo outrun £10, Sound 
Xpress sampler £25. Batman 
£5. » 081-530 4948. 

KCS Powerboard. New 
February 91 complete, boxed 
package only £ 1 50. » Gerry 
0484 427508 (Huddersfield) 
anytime. 

Switched rwo way serial 
transfer data transfer unit 25 
pin connection £10.00. » 
0706 622135. 

Deluxe Paint 2 Photon Paint 
art packages - complete with 
manuals £5.00 each. « 
0706 622135. 

Amiga 500, external AF880 
PC compatible disk drive, 



Only £5 to soil your used hardware and software in Amiga Shopper 

Sell your excess hardware and software with Amiga Shopper Reader Adverts. Just fill in the form and send it to us along with a 

cheque (made payable to Future Publishing) or postal order for £5. But BE WARNED This magazine is not a forum for selling 
irate software or other illegal goods. Software must include all issue disks, manuals and a signed statement that all other copies 
ave been destroyed. Please advise us if you are offered pirate or copied software by advertisers. All ads are accepted in good 

faith. The editor reserves the right to refuse or amend ads. We accept no responsibility for typographical errors or losses allegedly 

arising from the use of this service. 

Trade ads will not be accepted, including anyone advertising the sale of PD software. 



£ 



Name issue 4 

Address 

Postcode 

Date 

Tel 



Tick on* box to 

show required 

techoo heading 

For sale. 

□ 

Wanted ... 

□ 

Personal 

□ 

Fanzines 
□ 



Use one space for each word to o maximum of 30 words in bkxk copilots 





































































Return to: 

Reader Ads, 

Amiga Shopper, 

30 Monmouth 

Street, 

Bath, 

Avon BA1 2BW 



Deadline: Unfortunately we cannot guarantee an insertion in a particular issue. 
I have read and understood the conditions for the inclusion of my ad. 



Signature 



A501 expansion, control unit, 
magazines, games, joysticks, 
mouse, manuals, all for £650 
ono. « John 081-558 1707 
or 071-480 3649. 

The Datel pro-sample 1 1 
stereo sound sampler + Datel 
jammer. Brand new with 
software and manual. For 
only £55. Ask for Paul on 
0427 61273. 

Commodore 64K, data 
cassette, complete with leads, 
manual, mags and over £350 
worth of games. VGC all for 
£125 ono. Please ■ Paul on 
0923 35184 after 6pm 
please. 



WANTED 



Amiga Format magazines 
numbers one through four. 
Please write to Robert 
Claxson, 60 Doncaster Way, 
Upminster, Essex RM14 2PL. 

A-Max Mac Emulator, KCS 
or at Bridge Board, 
accelerator card (68020) or 
(68030) and 3.5" internal 
second floppy drive will 
collect . *■ Tony on 09 1 
5845961. 

Issue seven of Amiga Format 
plus cover disk. Contact 
Maureen at 1 2a Porter Street, 
Dudley, West Midlands. 

Swap your Public Domain 
disks for mine. Will refund 
your postage. Send to 
Andrew Berry, 30 Bedwlwyn 
Road, Ystrad Mynach, Mid 
Glomorgan CF8 7AD. 



FANZINES 



The Disk - issue three 
includes Rattlecopy, Ppanim, 
Noclick3.6, SKI game, plus 
loads more. Also free draw to 
win 400 utilities if you send 
£ 1 .00 for issue three! Steven 
Lord, 6 Stubbing Brink, 
Hebden Bridge HX7 6LR. 

Want to join a club? Want 
a book full of tips and cheats? 
Send SAE to S Hurst, 36 
Sandgote, Stratton, Swindon. 



114 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1 99 1 



YERS' G U D 




To take advantage of the Amiga's superb graphics 
system you need the software to create drawings and 
animations. This summary table shows the principal 
features of seven of the leading programs, together 
with the ratings they received when reviewed in Amiga 
Shopper. For more details see issue 2, available for 
£1.50, see page 62. 



PAINT PACKAGE FEATURES AND RATINGS AT-A-GLANCE GUIDE 



Lew res 


My Paint 

• 


The Graphics 

Studio 

• 


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Photolab 


Express Paint 




Dlgi-Paint 3 


Photon 
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£79.99 

Electronic Arte 


£129.99 

Mectreak Arts 

0783 48448 


$139.99 
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£79.94 

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£49.93 
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881-388 1111 


8484 484497 



AMIGA SHOPPER 9 ISSUE 4 9 AUGUST 1 99 1 



115 



SAFE 



O P P I N G 








Whether buying over the phone from adverts in Amiga Shopper or at 
a local computer store, here's our advice on how to avoid problems 



BUYING IN PERSON 

• Where possible, always 
test any software and 
hardware in the shop, before 
taking it home, to make sure 
it works properly. 

• Make sure you have all the 
necessary leads, manuals or 
other accessories you need. 

• Don't forget to keep your 
purchase receipt. 

BUYING BY PHONE 

• Be as clear as possible 
when stating what you want 
to buy. Make sure you 
confirm all the technical 
details of what you are 
buying. Some things to bear 
in mind are version numbers, 



memory requirements, other 
required hardware or 
software and compatibility 
with your particular model of 
Amiga (that is, make sure you 
know which version of 
Kickstart you have). 

• Check the price to make 
sure it's the same as the one 
advertised. 

• Check that what you're 
ordering is actually in stock. 

• Check when and how the 
article will be delivered and 
that any extra charges are as 
stated on the advert. 

• Make a note of the date 
and time when you are 
making the order. 




PROBLEMS WITH AN ADVERTISER? 

We want to ensure that buying mail order through Amiga Shopper is 
a straightforward, hassle-free experience. 

Taking the advice offered on this page will help make it so. But if, 
despite this, you run into problems - for example, failure to deliver 
goods within 28 days, without reasonable explanation - we will do 
our best to help sort things out. 

Simply contact our Customer Liaison Officer, 
Helen Self at Future 
Publishing Ltd, 30 
Monmouth Street, Bath 
BA1 2BW 

You should supply her 
with full details of the 
advertisement you 
responded to, which issue if 
Amiga Shopper it was in, 
the goods ordered and 
precise details of the 
problem encountered. She 
will then do her best to solve 
your problem. However, 
please bear in mind that 
your first contact in any 
enquiry should be direct to 
the company you have 
ordered from. In 99 cases 
out of 1 00 they will be able 
to resolve any difficulties. 



Customer Liaison Officer Helen Self 
will try to sort out any major problems 
with advertisers. 



BUYING BY POST 

As with buying by phone, you 
should clearly state exactly 
what it is you are buying, at 
what price (refer to the 
magazine, page and issue 
number where it's advertised) 
and give any relevant 
information about your system 
set-up where necessary. You 
should also make sure you 
keep copies of all 
correspondence both to and 
from the company concerned. 

MAKING RETURNS 

Whichever method you buy 
by, you can return it if it fails 
to meet any one of the 
following three criteria: 

• It must be of 'merchantable 
quality'. 

• It must be as described. 

• It must be fit for the 
purpose for which it was sold. 

If it fails to satisfy any or all of 
the criteria, then you are then 
entitled to: 

• Return it for a refund. 

• Get compensation for part 
of the value. 

• Get a replacement or free 
repair. 

When returning anything, 
ensure you have proof of 
purchase and that you do it 
as soon as possible after 
receiving it. For this reason it 
is important that you check 
the hardware or software as 
soon as it is delivered to 
make sure everything you 
ordered is there and works as 
it is supposed to. 



HOW TO PAY 

Paying by credit card is the 
most sensible way, whether 
buying in person, by post or 
on the phone, because you 
may be able to claim the 
money from the credit 
company even if the firm you 
ordered from has gone bust 
or refuses to help sort out 
your problem. 

Otherwise, pay by crossed 
cheque or postal order, but 
never send coins or notes 
through the mail. 

GETTING REPAIRS 

Always check, when buying 
hardware, the conditions of 
the guarantee, servicing and 
replacement policy, so that 
you know what level of 
support to expect. Always fill 
in and return warranty cards 
as soon as possible and 
make sure that you are aware 
of all the conditions contained 
in the guarantee. 

■ 

BUYING PD 

Even though buying PD 
software is relatively 
inexpensive, you should still 
apply the same rules of 
confirming all transactions as 
clearly as possible and 
making sure that you keep 
accurate records of all 
communications. 

Shopping around is still 
important when buying PD 
because different houses 
charge different prices for the 
same disks. There is no set 
pricing structure for disks, but 
bear in mind that PD houses 
are supposed to be non-profit 
making operations. O 



116 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1991 



• PUBLIC 



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M. D. Office Supplies would like to apologise to all its competitors in 
this magazine. As ever we shall be offering Diskettes, Storage Boxes, 

etc at prices which are simply INCREDIBLE 



JUST LOOK AT THESE SUPERB OFFERS 










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Disk 
Offers 



200 Double Sided. 
Double Density 3.5" 

PLUS 

2, 100 Capacity 3.5" 

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200 Labels £74.95 



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ALL STORAGE BOXES SUPPLIED ARE 

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ACCESSORIES 

100 CAPACITY 3.6- LOCKABLE STORAGE BC < 

100 CAPACITY OCKABLE STORAGE BOX I 7 95 

OR 5 2'j" PACK OF 5 LIBRARY CASES . 
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ROLL OF 1000 3.5" DISKETTE UV 



5.25" MAGIC MEDIA' DS DD DISCS 

20 DS 00 5.25' 720K DISCS WITH OUR DELUXE STORAGE BOX £13.95 

50 OS DD 525* 720K DISCS WITH OUR DELUXE STORAGE BOX £1995 
70 OS DO 5 25- 720K DISCS WTTH OUR DELUXE STORAGE BOX £2395 

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200 DS DO 525" 720K DISCS WITH 2 DELUXE STORAGE BOXES £54 95 

Whai can we say. stmpty these are the best value money can buy. These diskettes 
are packed in 10's, certificated, tested, 100% quality product 
YOU CANNOT BUY BETTER 



BRILLIANT EXCITING NEW PRODUCT 

Rtt ink the product that will allow you to re-use your 
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(All prices quoted are inclusive of VAT and carriage UK Mainland only) E.&O.E. 
EDUCATIONAL & GOVERNMENT ORDERS WELCOME 





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354 High Street, Chatham, Kent. ME4 4NP. Orderline 0634-831870 




Music Section 

C006 Sonix No. I 

C030 Share & enjoy equalizer 

C029 Sonix No. 7 

|C043 Alfdemo 1 

C061 Classix 1 

IC066 Royal Amiga Force 1 

C067 Disk B to above 

C087 Kylie Its no secret 

C088 Disk B to above 

C093 Bacteria demo 

C101 Sonix classix 

CI 08 Digital concert 3 

CI 13 Sonix No.17 

CI 30 Budbraindemo 1 

C13I Disk B to above (18) 

CI 42 Digital concert 1 

C 1 43 Digital concert 5 

C 1 56 Donald weres yor trousers 

C 1 63 Genesis Land of confusion 

CI 89 Treacl mega demo Disk A 

C 1 90 Disk B to above 

C191 Disk C to above 

CI 92 Alkatraz demo disk A 

CI 93 Disk B to above 

CI 94 Disk C to above 

CI 98 Star trekking disk A 1 Meg 

CI 99 Disk B to above 

C200 Xmas carols 

C201 Good Morning Vietnam 

C210 Alfdemo 2 

IC229 Hotwired 

C236 Turtle demo bv sector 16 

C244 Amazing Tunes disk A 

C245 Disk B to above 

C246 Disk C to above 

C248 Budbrain2 

C303 StartrackerV1.2 

C305 Sonix No.5 

C308 Zenn sound box 

C324 Noisetracker 

C327 Turtle power disk A 

C328 Disk B to above 

C329 Disk C to above 

C356 Beatmaster 808 state 

C367 Ultimate FX 

C380 Mucky Morris & the Cowpats 

C410 Digital Concert 2 

C411 Digital Concert 3 

C412 Digital Concert 6 

C416 Blues Brothers disk A 

C417 Disk B to above 

C418 Disk C to above 

C419 Dr Awesome & Fleshbrain 

C425 Ami sampled off radio Disk A 

|C426 Disk B to above 

C428 Smith & Jones 1 (18) 

C429 Smith & Jones 2 (!8) 

C430 Smith & Jones 3 (18) 



All public domain disks are virus 

checked with the latest version of 

the Master virus killer. 

Anyone finding a virus on one of our 

disks please let us know and it will 

be removed from the disk. 



Amiga Public Domain Prices 

Prices vary on how many disks are 
needed to make a program work, ie 
some music disks need 2 or more 
disks to work these are called sets. 



Single disks 
Two disk sets 
Three disk sets 
Four disk sets 



£1.50 each 
£2.75 per 2 disk set 
£4.00 per 3 disk set 
£5.25 per 4 disk set 



Min order 5 disks 

More disks are in the collection, too 

manv disks to list here. Last count 

over 900. 

Utility Section 

E001 SID 

E017 Printer utilities 1 

E020 Fonts disk 1 

E021 Fonts disk 2 

E022 Label designer 

E028 Ultimate utilities 

E029 Virus Killers disk 1 

E032 Boot block makers disk 1 

E034 Printer utilities 2 

E045 Business card maker 

E046 Viruscope (good) 

E051 NcomV1.9 (modem util) 

E056 Tetracopy 

EOS 7 Catalogue Workshop 

JE063 C Manual 

E070 QL Emulator 

E07 1 Disk B to above 

E072 Disk C to above 

E074 Spreadsheet 

E083 Master virus killer 

E088 Textplus word processor 

E094 Flexi Wosname database 

El 05 North C 

El 14 Slideshow construction set 

E 1 1 9 Dope intro maker 

El 30 Rim database 

E 1 40 A gene geneology program 

EMI Forms really unlimited 

El 53 Disk crunchers 



Games 

D004 Monopoly USA version 

D008 Paranoid (Breakout game) 

DO 13 Peters Quest 

D020 Poker Solitaire 

D026 Blackjack/Solitaire 

D027 Star Trek disk A 

D028 Disk B to above 

D035 Break out games 

D044 Flashbier 

D052 The Drip 

D054 Breakout Construction Set 

D057 Letrix 

D065 Wet Beaver Tennis Game 

D069 riles/BattleshipsyChess/Tetris II 

D070 Tomtespelet (2 player) 

D071 Return to Earth 

D072 Star Trek the Next Generation 

D074 UGA Games Compulation 

D075 Snake Pit Game 



Graphics Section 

F0 1 1 Space Ace demo 

F015 3D Arm 

F025 Pugs in Space 

F030 Gvmnast Amin 1 Meg 

F049 Fractual Flight demo 

F057 Viz Pics (18) 

F058 Fantasv Pictures disk A 

F059 Disk B to above 

F086 Enteprise leaves the Dock 

Anim 1 Meg 

F091 Stealthy Manoeuvres 1 Meg 

F097 Argatron Anims 07 

F098 Argatron Anims 24 

F 1 00 Argatron Anims 02 

F101 Argatron Anims 22 

F102 Argatron Anims 23 

F104 Argatron Anims 17 

F109 Clip Art disk 1 

F110 Clip Art disk 2 

Fill Clip Art disk 3 

Fl 12 Clip Art disk 4 

Fl 13 Walker demo 1 2 Meg 

Fl 14 Disk B to above 

Fl 15 Walker demo 2 2 Meg 

Fl 16 Disk B to above 

F125 Station Anim 2 Meg 

F126 Disk B to above 

F127 Disk C to above 

FI41 Fillet the fish 1 Meg ! 

F 1 64 Tobias richter slideshow 

F16S Disk B to above 

F166 Lost In Space Anim 2 Meg 

F167 Disk B to above 

F168 Disk C to above 

F170 Batman the movie 1 Meg 

F 1 73 Juggler meets the lady 

F 1 74 Fantasy space slideshow 

Fl 76 Mandlebrot generator 

F179 Iraq demo 1 Meg 

F180 Amy the Squirrel at the 

Movies 2 Meg 

F190 Tron Anim I Meg 

F191 Disk B to above 

F200 Robin Hood slideshow with 

music (Cartoon) 

F209 Life of Brian slideshow 

with samples from film 

F2 1 9 Franklin the Fly anim 

F228 Italian Job digi Anim 1 1 Meg 

F229 Italian Job digi Anim 2 1 Meg 

F242 Stealthv Manoeuvres 

Swiss army F16 Anim 

Directory disk £ 1 .50 inc P&P. 

Contains some free PD 

utilities/music. Orders taken 

24hrs a day on the answerphone 

payment via Access & Visa or 

mail order payment by postal 

order or cheque made payable to: 

C & N COMPUTERS 

Orders despatched within 24hrs 

(Mon-Sat). Phone orders 

despatched Mon if given on 

Sundays. 



PTOU^^MAIN 





BEGINNERS 

'START HERE 



Software for free? How's that then" 

This may sound like a call to piracy, 

but public domain software is free to 
anyone. Yes even you sir, you at the 
back with the Jolly Roger. There isn't 
any catch, unless you count the fact 
•ha* more is so much PD software on 
offer mat it's hord to choose what 

you're going to have. And that's 
where I come in. 

i 

But what does PD mean? 

The public domain concept is borrowed 
from the early days of mainframe 
systems, where enthusiasts (called 
"hackers" then, before the word had 
lew pleasant connotations) produced 
programs and distributed them to their 
friends and fellow hackish types, 
asking for no payment but the glow of 
being recognised as a truly hackish 
coder. The copyright was waived by 
the author, and so the program was 
said to be In the public domain - that is 
to say, any member or the public had 
a right to copy and use the program 
however they wished, provided that 
the author's credit and any relevant 
documentation was distributed with 
the program. 

So how can I get hold of all this 
wonderful free PO? 

You can either buy it from a PO library 
(see the last page of this article for a 
list of PD houses in the UK) or, if 
you've got a modem, download it 
from a bulletin board. These are 
computers with modems, which 
anyone can use a phone and modem 
to log on to, download a lot of demos 
and utilities, leave a few messages 
and programs of their own and log 
off. You'l find many boards with 

go fifes - check out our Comms 
pages for phone numbers. 





here are many types of program available in the public 
domain, ranging from superb graphic demos and useful 
utilities to pathetic programs which crash your machine the 
minute you try to run them. Every month, Phil South will let 
you know about the best and the worst on the market; but first, a 
look at what sort of things you can expect to find... 

Utilities 

These are programs which help you 
use your computer. Some are just 
simple commands for your C 
directory for use from the CLI or Shell, 
while others are complete menu- 



driven programs to compress files, 

convert them from one format to 
another or even rescue broken disks. 
The best disks to look for ore the 
collections with a selection of the best 
utils all squeezed on to one disk. 
Virus killers ore some of the most 
useful PD utils. and being PD they are 
free - users of many other kinds of 
computer have to pay good money 
for decent virus killers, but we get 
them for nothing. 

Applications 

Some of the best programs are PD 
SID, for example, is one of the best 
graphic interfaces for AmigaDOS, 
and it's PD (or, to be more precise, 
'shareware'). SID is a graphic front 
end for the AmigaDOS file system, 
ollowing you to move files around, 

delete them, rename them, copy them 
and re-organise your disks. In fact, I 
don't know a single Amigahead who 
would be without his copy of the 
program And there are many other 
kinds of programs too. from business 
to graphics applications. Check the 
PD libraries before you lash out some 
cash on a commercial program - you 
may find a PD solution which could 

e you loadsamoney (to use a 
other outdated phrase). 



is generally of the dance variety, 
although some more exotic sonix do 
come out from time to time. Demo 
teams usually go on to be 
professional programmers after a 
while, so their demo days are usually 
limited. Scoopex and Silents ore two 
of the best teams, and also the likes 
of Kefrens are not to be missed. 
Imagine a cross between a dance 
record, a video and a 
lightshow and you're getting 
the general idea. 

Game Demos 

In recent years, the various 
major software houses have 
watched the PD arena 
growing and hove noticed that 
people buy demo disks, 
especially when on the cover 
of a magazine. So they put out 
demos, sometimes fully 
playable demos, of their new 
releases, allowing the punters 
to try the game before they 
buy. Demos of this kind usually 
turn up on the covers of 
magazines like our sister publication 
Amiga Format, and then before long 
the demos turn up on their own in PD 
libraries A successful and popular 
demo translates into a very popular 
game - for example, take note of the 
enormous success of Lemmings, from 
Psygnosis, which started life as just 
such a demo. 




"Buying and choosing PD 
software can be a real minefield. 
Let me help you get the best of 
whafs on offer for free." 

Phil 'Snooty' South 



Slideshows 

Some Amiga artists spend a lot of 
time creating works of art on their 
computers, which is no good if 
nobody sees them. So many Amiga 
artists make slideshows of their work 
for public consumption. If you're very 
clever (or own one of the fab new 
snapshot cartridges) you can grab the 
art and examine it to see how it was 
done, and you could even use it as 
clip ort in your DTP packages. 
(Beware, though, some PD artists may 
get a bit cross if you do. Remember 
that unless explicitly stated, copyright 
remains with the artist, which means 




A slideshow from Crazy Joe's 
features this crazy guy. 

that you can't reproduce the work 
without their permission.) Some of the 
most stunning Amiga art comes from 
a chap colled Tobios Richter, an artist 
who lives in Germany. He uses a ray- 

(ontinued on poM 1 20 



r 



Demos 

This is a new art form. The demos are 
created by a team of hackers, usually 
called a "crew" or "team", who get 
together and have a "late night hack 
attack" and create a dazzling 
demonstration of their programming 
abilities. The demos con be graphics- 
or music-based, but they always have 
the feel of a pop video, and the music 



Paying For It 

PD is free, but disks, postage and wages aren't, so be prepared to pay 
between 99p and about £2.50 per disk from a PD software house. The price 
you pay is up to you, although some people get o bit cross paying £2.50 
when other houses do disks for 99p. I suppose it depends on how the disks are 
duplicated. If the company hasan office and a duping machine, then it costs 
money to run. But if it's built the PD house into an existing business, then 
obviously it has no overheads to speak of. Some 99p PD houses are good, 
others are terrible. The only way to find out for sure is to spend 99p. Or read 
Amiga Shopper every month, for the same price, and find out from usl 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1991 



119 



PUBU 



GJBf™" 



continued from page 119 

tracer called Reflections (coming soon 
to the UK), and turns out some 
amazing stills and animations based 
on Star Trek and other sci-fi subjects. 
Watch out for him under the name 
Agatron. 

Music Demos 

Some PD authors are music nuts, who 
spend their lives churning out disks of 



There are lots of 'ware'-type 
schemes. Freeware is usually the 
name given to normal PD. Beerware 
was one idea where the fee for using 
the program was to send the author 
some beer. Exclusiveware is a new 
idea, which works a lot like 
licenseware. Others, like Charityware 
- if you keep the program you are 
requested to donate money to a 
(normally) specified charity - are 




Oof a CD-ROM player? Then save yourself anything up to £800 by 
buying the Fred Fish collection on CD-ROM instead of floppies. 



tunes for you to play on your Amiga. 
Some are Soundtracker- or 
No/sefrocker-sampled tunes from the 
charts, re-mixed in the Amiga. Others 
are synthesised tunes from the 
classics. Most are pretty good. If you 
like well-sequenced music, I think 
you'll be surprised at the very high 
quality of the tunes around on the 
Amiga PD circuit. 

PD categories 

There is some PD which is not free to 
all. This comprises: 

1 Licenseware 

These are games or programs which 
are licensed to specific PD houses, to 
prevent the free distribution of the 
program - although the price to the 
consumer is more or less the same. 
MED is a good example; it's a music 
program which is licensed to 
Amiganuts United. This program is 
sold by Amiganuts, and a proportion 
of the fee goes back to the author in 
Finland. This scheme works better 
than shareware (see below) from the 
authors' point of view, as the money 
is handed over when the disk is 
purchased, rather than trusting the 
users to pay up later. 

2 Shareware 

This is a branch of PD that you pay 
for, but are allowed to use free for a 
short time first to see if you like it. It 
isn't expensive, as the author usually 
only asks for between £5 and £25 
for his or her efforts. In most cases it's 
worth paying in the end, as you get 
free upgrades and documentation. 



reasonably easy to work out from 
their descriptions. 

Disk magazines 

Magazines on disk are not new, but 
there are more now than ever before. 
Newsflash, 1 7 Bit Update, Computer 
Lynx, Scanner and Jumpdisk are 
prime examples of the type of thing 
I'm talking about, and they are, on 
the whole, very good. Magazines of 
this type usually contain PD software, 
demos and music, plus a lot of 
graphics and text as well. The text is 
normally reviews of software, or 
perhaps a bit of hardware, and is 
usually quite short to keep the amount 
of different text files up and leave 
space for programs too. The text is 
sometimes a bit on the ropy side, but 
that's what you get for having a 
writer who's an editor too. [Too true 
- Ed.) A spelling checker wouldn't 
hurt some of these guys, I can tell 
you. Not, of course, unless you hit 
them with the diskl 

This month's selection 

Right, lets get down to business. I've 
a good range of stuff this month, 
from games to business, utilities to 
demos. But first, let's start with... 



CD-ROM 



An interesting turn up for the books 
this month was the appearance of a 
number of a number of CD-ROM PD 
disks on my desk. The two sets are 
the Hypermedia Concepts disk 



snappily titled The Fred Fish 
Collection On CD ROM, and the 
specially-compiled Xetec collection 
Fish & More volumes 1 and 2. 

The CD-ROM idea is perfect for 
public domain, as you usually copy 
the programs from the source disk 
and never write to them anyway. 
Having the 400+ Fish disks on a 
single CD is certainly a boon, and is 
a good short cut to catching up on 
what you've missed out. To buy the 
whole Fish collection up to date on 
floppies would cost about £400- 
£800, depending on where you buy, 
so getting them all on a CD costing 
£30-odd is certainly a bargain. In 
fact the Fish & More disk comes free 
with the Xetec CD-ROM drive, which 
is a bargain in itself. 

The idea of having the whole of 
the Fish library on a single disk is a 
stunning idea, and as a basic 
reference library of every type of 
utility and demo you could ever want 
it represents quite startling value for 
money. All the demos you've ever 
seen are on these disks, and quite a 
few things you couldn't even have 
guessed at, like a program which 
tests your knowledge of Thai, a 
program which converts IFF pictures 
into PostScript format, and programs 
which make your screen melt down 
to the bottom like someone's put a 
blowlamp on itl There are some mind 
melting demos, too, like the Walker 
demo and the Probe demo - all the 
classics. Plus some of the best games 
I've ever played. I especially like Star 
Trek: The Next Generation Trivia 
Challenge (Fish 404 & 405), 
MechFight (Fish 410) and Mono 
(Fish 194). 

As we will all have CD-ROM 
units before the end of next year 
{confident prediction), I suggest that 
one of these Fish disks be high on 
your list of the first CDs to get once 
you've got a drive. Like most 
innovations, once you've used one 
it's hard to imagine life without it. 



Many thanks must go to Mick 
Graham of Pazaz for the loan of the 
Xetec drive and the Fish and More 
disks. You can contact Mick to talk 
about CD-ROM at Pazaz, 1 4 
Douglas Street, Dunfermline, Fife, 
Scotland. « 0393 620102. 



UTILITIES 



Our pile of utils disks comes from 
Electriclown this month, and there is 
a very sound reason for this. 
Electriclown sets out its disks very 
sensibly into groups of utilities. All the 
disks I received have the nice new 
menu system by Nico Francois on 
them, and very posh it looks. All the 
programs worked from the menu, 
too, which is sometimes not the case 
with these things. The creator of these 
disks has obviously gone to a lot of 
trouble to test the products and 
ensure that they function properly. 
(I've had some rubbish in here, I can 
tell you, stuff that crashes and doesn't 
link up with other bits of the 
program... blurgh. Thank goodness 
this isn't the case here.) Electriclown 
disks are nicely put together, with a 
lot of uncommon programs and 
utilities. Nice one EC. 

Backups 

Electric 1 5 

The Backups Disk contains Easy 
Backup and Easy Restore, a pair of 
hard disk backup and restore 
programs. Both are CU-based, 
although you can use them from the 
neat menu interface. Also on the disk 
are some copiers like NIB, a nibble 
copier, P-Copy, RAMCopy, 
RatHeCopy and TurboBockup, all of 
which enable you (surprise, surprise) 
to back up your floppies. A curiosity 
here is the inclusion of a program 
called PumpyCopy. The pump in 
question is obvious when you start 
the program, as fans of Viz will 

CMriM»4 m p»» m 




This is the program selector from the Darknm** Megadcmo II disk. I 
don't know why Albert's in the picture; there must be a reason... 



120 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 AUGUST ! 99 1 




AMIGANUTS UNITED 

169 DALE VALLEY ROAD, HOLLYBROOK, SOUTHAMPTON, SOI 6QX. 

Tel enquiries: 0703 785680. Mail Order Only. 

AMIGANUTS ARE THE OFFICIAL UK DISTRIBUTORS OF THE T.BAG DISKS AND THE LATEST ISSUES ARE ALWAYS AVAILABLE FROM US FIRST 




W 



AMIGANUTS ARE PROUD TO INTRODUCE THE EXCELLENT 1 MEG EIGHT OR FOUR CHANNEL MIDI COMPATIBLE OctaMED 
NOTE THAT AMIGANUTS UNTTED HOLD THE WORLDWIDE COPYRIGHT TO THIS PROGRAM AND fT WILL 

NOT IE AVAILABLE THROUGH ANY OTHER SOURCE 

THEPROGRAWISO SUCH HIGH QUALITY I IAI aECOULD EASUy HAVE PUT ITON SALE FOR £50OftMOR£' 

No-we-w Amig»ius and ff>e m&or, Teyo Kmnunen, **vt it to be witNn the reach o* oil Am»98 enthuwosls. so v« are keep*r»9 the price down y&, can purchase tfvs sre* program for only £10 00 wiff*n Europe (£15 OQtornoV 

European) The pnce nckxles return poy and oacbng Payment n pounds sterling on* it crdenng from c^eneas.serxJ a bankers order/eixocheque etc (Credit card orders will not be accepted) Because or the exceptional* 

low pnce. n comes without glossy pacing and one page of pmed ctocumentation (Instructions on the dr*) 
A full instruction manual for thcs program will become available later, but due to the hrgh costs mvoh/ed, it wdi be quite expensive* 



6S 



f 






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£3 00 
£3 50 
£3 00 
Now readfat £2 00 each 






BUG-BASH An excellent childrens game (For adults as well) £300 NUCLEUS A budget shoot -em-up that will keep you occupied 

1036: AMIBASE PROFESSIONAL II The new additions to thrs database make it a must have, includes picture addition facility (1 Meg) 

876: QUIZMASTER Think you know it al' 7 Well now you can prove it Save and re-load facility For Uo 4 players Excellent! 

•77: 1 ACROSS2DOWN A fully fledged crossword program It comes on two disks for only £5 00 Datadrsks2&3 

INTO CODING 7 - Want to team? The Amrga Coders Club is for you' Ace 1 '4 compressed issues of an excellent series for coders, even if you are new to the 

Amy, get thrs if you wan! to learn Assembly, using Devpac etc .. A great innoduction to the wwld of Assembfy 

The Amiga Coders Club disks are packed with source, hints, tips, advice from many of the well known coders thai are on the Amiga scene today 

issues 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 1 1 now available Please note, excluding the compressed introductory disk, Amgia Coders Club disks are £3 00 per issue 

ACC issue 19 is chjt birthday issue, it is a S dr# set arKl for a limited time cmry. yc^ can £300 






Onry £1 50 



AMIGA COOERS CLUB SPECIAL! At last an Assembler package that will do all the Assembling of your progs at a very reasonable price 



£5X 



1038: SUPER AMOASH Remember that good okj Commodore 64 game BoukJerdash' well r«re »s yo«» crwr^e K) have r^at fun again iMeg 

1068: MOD PROCESSOR VI 91 Make Picture and/or Mus< progs, adjust pc heighuwtdth TM vers-on will load 8 Channel OctaMED mus* 

1073; Intuimcnu The ea siest way to run all youf programs £300 1077: CLEAR A very good, but hard, game from PH software 

i0«3: COPPER WRinER/Screen designer 'for programmers only) £300 1088: WEIRD IN EDGWAY5 Real mmdooggimg puz/te game 1 









IMS 



THE FOLLOWING IS A VERY SMALL SELECTION FROM THE PUBLIC DOMAIN/SHAREWARE COLLECTION THAT WE HAVE COLLATED OVER THE PAST FIVE YEARS. 













MEDOctaMED SAMPI.ES PACK Si* dtste that arr Mtted with SWPLES for use with this excellent mus»c utility, (note or* s VERy RUDE) 

MED V3 lib NOT COMPARABLE TOOtWAED, (S£E ABOVE)>>w 

971: THE MASTER VIRUS KILLER It recourses and kills over 190 of the pests + other extcHern features (includes hard drr* protect) 

990: WIGA C CLUB MANUAL VB is newv here Loads more info, source and help Horr Anders Bjetm Now Auto-Booting and on four disks .. 

996: The latest and easiest setkeys prog to re-define your teymaps. Plus a host of other utilities, (Icon Design, Icontab, Cliplt etc) 

1026: STAR TREK MEGADPMO Another well presented twD drsk set from Totnas Richtcr, comtMmng p»ctures, animatKXr ^>d music 1 »Meg 

1031: GAME COMPILATION Spacepoker, a good version of the Poker-Bandit Plus running and snakep*t, both with full game editing. 

1 047: TEXTPLUS VX0EN is here* The extra facilities on this new version are unbelievable and would take half a page to describe' 

1 067; UED1T V26e The very latest version of this very popular text/editor prog by Rick Stiles The new features are very good. 

1 080, VIVALDI 'The Four Seasons' Thrs is an excellently produced two drsk classical mus*c set Dy Rob Baxter A must for classic fans 






























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10M: THE ART Of MEDM0 Grew Med toons that run for hours ..£150 

398: GMQSTPOa and SPIGOT. Animations by Or Gandalt IMeg £150 

700- D-COPVV1 Excellent copier program Full instructions. . £2.50 

94* SYNERGY Well presented sculpt 40 pictures £1 50 

t07. SNAKES 4 LADDERS Excellent game for tr« fan** 1 Meg £9 00 

1054: AftDCx PROGRAMMERS Tutorial dish from the SWAG group £1 SO 

104O-. ttAUOONACY An excellent game tor the children l Meg £S 00 

1093: GOLF RECORDER It you play go", thrt prog rs for yoJ £200 






1 087: IMAGES FROM AQUARIUS V2 Well presented pic/music drs* £1 50 
576: EDUCATION for the children includes Blackboard Maths £200 

933: A-GENE Genealogy The \<ry latest V3.125 IMeg £2 50 






741: NortKV13(9dTSl(S) A must for a» you C Coders 
967: STEREO 3D DEMOS by Exit (Great" but needs 3D glasses) 
1032:AMI-FX3 Trwd «n thrs fractal senes (3 dote> 1 Meg 
105* DRIFTERS DEMO The Prisoner* & *Soc of One" are great 



396: POWERPACKERrjyNico Francois Excellent crunch ubl 
640: 8 Games, including The Tram Set and XFire Very good* 
728: UTILS The famous Boot-Shop. Boot*t ♦ others 
£500 950: THE EVIL DEAD by Possessed Can you Ml the zomc-es 
£9 00 1093: THE EXCELLENT AMY versus THE WALKER AMMATON i Vec 

£4 00 1037: GAMES . Ktond*e (great verswn). Stnon (fun tor tods) 

£1 50 1090: MASTER Of THE TOWN Or* or two player smash em up game 



□ X 

£3 50 
£3 00 
£300 



£8 00 
£3 00 
£2 50 
£600 

ts 00 

£3 00 
ES OC 

£3 00 
£3 00 
£4 00 
£150 
£2 00 
£2 50 
£150 
£1 50 
£150 
E20Q 



FREE DISKS + FREE PROGS ♦ FREE MEMBERSHIP OVER A THOUSAND DETAILED PROGS PLUS SOME GAMES TO PLAY, ON THE MAIN CATALOGUE DISK ONLY £1.00 MAIN CATALOGUE DISK SENT fREE" WTTH ORDERS 
ABOVE £1 5.00 - PLEASE REMEMBER TO ASK FOR VOUR FREE COPY IF YOU SEND IN AN ORDER ABOVE £15.00. PRICES QUOTED INCLUDE RETURN POST AND PACKING - MAKE CHEQUES ETC, PAYABIE TO 

AMIGANUTS UNITED 

WE DO NOT ACCEPT CREDIT CARD ORDERS 
THE THIRD 1991 UPDATE TO OUR MAIN CATALOGUE IS NOW READY FOR £1 00 tThe update contain* only the 1991 additions to the Htxary) 



ay 



CATALOGUE DISK - SOP 



GOLDSTAR COMPUTERS (E.C.) LTD 

P.O. Box 2, Tyldesley, Manchester, M29 7BN 

(0942) 895320 r 



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OVER 1 "00 DISKS 



WE ARE NOW THE SOU 

DEMOS 

D59 ScoopcK Cranium KRIl U A VT 
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Dl" OlabilTtah-EXGniXNT 

hi* I Pheiiotiuna Interspace - llnll 

ANIMATIONS 

MM Hook l>enHvKni^il Come* Alive 

A0.4 Fdu( .Hi* *n of Cool (xiugar 

A06 More Acrotoona Erk SthwVIU 

Alo Batman Morr Sch^*art? 

A i J Prcilxr ^upt^b Sequence 

AK> Unumntt - Cornmcrtul Oenicj 

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A2i/V9/6^ Strva Anbro 

K£H Mjgxun ■ FTTreinetrily Good 

\**t G)-nim«f - ^upert> 3D 

* * - Irvlanu J*jn**^ - *wicd B* 

A39 FairtTheF«%h Good 

Art Fraaji Rifchi V Goad 

A^i Ep* P?r*Te* Fuellem 

A62 Mmmp Colkcior Hnllum 

A63 Jutpikr D \'crv ^cf> hjnn> 

A"W AKainm W - Millenium Fakcwi 

aha DMcovay Shifttle * Good 

AMOS P.D. 

KPDll itofd Square Si-Uvei 
API *Z POnm Rcall> ('nlmuce-tl 

AMW Hacknupc Dctnn Cmin 
APIM43 Ann>s hiini-Necib lmh 
m t ' I & Simon Say^ a Space Maths Ed 
APIH T fi DataNue Master NeeUs \mU 

AMOS UCENCEWARE i3.50 EACH 

ll r ' 1 * okmrinK Book For Knb lmh 
LPD2 AAe Angel Maths VGood Inib 
IPfH Amos Auemhlrr Ftceflleffl 
tan»lo Wurd r^ovry >peilutK Ini* 
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LTDI tjiftmania I^ft> 
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EDUCAIION & GAMES 

GOI 2 1 i •* EducattOQ l^ci Teenager 

i 7 l«m A Play VottnK^r ^nb 
Gil liGgmoSohMtoQi Over 1M 
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OF 1C Al 50 VAREi in OF CAJJFORNIA IN THE USA. 

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lumcan Z f'Uvattle l>enK> 
G31 - Martrrk ■ T.R s Bnliunt liamr 

Flxsc-hbier ■ Excellent Anaue lame 
G41 Amtjcainan I lm Uk1c\ i Jk-« \ 1 
G45 Menaboll - IV-m hrrakoul (lone 
Cr46 Sctni TUe* speeti»>all i \*>t*r 

<rO wixo^ Quc»t v«y High Quality 
BUSINESS & SERIOUS 

B02 Wordwrtght QtlllMy WortI PfWCtM 

Clerk ■ A^t.otin1iitg Pnrgiarn 
l.'edlt ■ Another W»rI PfflOHJOl 
FlrxlhMe Powerful llatahdar 
Bu>ine^ Card Maker . Good 
gukkba^e SWnote AdJr^^^^ l> Bttftf 

yfj> k Fditiir Tew BdkW 

Texiplu* I ' .*t rna Kinor 

imiJTlES 

I'Ob Ih»«I)m»>lir«* Goori 

Kunnunu - M*kc k-*i» 

.UzrfwiKh • Enh*ntrd W B 
l>^c IrVninukcr • <km>1 
SIcrj I lilitK-- • Ova Mi 
KAtxt Tijat VHik - \3 1 til* 
Wimor* Ccum Ik*h - Li*» 
HMei Vkua Klfa V2 I 

1 in-.* Suilj!.- )-.i I) I' 
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IV) STEmuUtw a fHhet I iix 
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l>[4mum LtakMKs "• HOC 
Ntiith C VI * l->\r>a 



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1121 

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U144 

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Space BubNo Bom\ Good 

P05 Heal .ID Fxeelleru I v-mo 

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P25 Adam* Famlv Wi% Good 

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P56 NajriPfe* F- rikra 

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TO KelU Malr^ti.^ Good 
P76/7 Ncmcala tilJ 1 1 >lli * 1 p 

P80 S:mpv>9 Dfl^LuUiyl 

MUSIC 



Vanarli^ Sujiefh 
lean M*hel fjnr < * ■ -t 
Amixadeu^ - Bnllianl 
dassu 1 * Siane More 
Oavso ^ And F*rn Xfcar 



MM K M- 



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MAIN 



SUH 

mo 

MM 
MI9 
M20 

M;i 2 PiLtures- MoteCU^ 

MJ6 So* That* |-M Tracks 
Mti J . ^-"undirjtker \ « \ Good 
Taw OnV ■ l.urllrm I »^k 

MH4 Ra*u Drmm - Sonet hM*tet 

Mil* VoopnMuam Itik-Good 

MI^2 Sk>ndrfMu%M N I U*k 

MI65 Med V3 * Idfliate Muw 

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M17J AudttmaK a .^ LUh 

mi^ M^nr^kei h UtA tacka 

M182 PulMlf ( ompoarf I *irlk*m 

M1^H> 1 ** IKi The Bannian in r 



POSTAGE 



Single l>.sks ii Si. 

Three Di-k vts M i ( ' 

FiveOMk Sci> 47 30 

Seven Disk Sett £1000 



Tun IVk Xfo .:* 

Four D»k Set-. i 

Six t>>-A Srtv i* _t > 



PHKMII H st )l IAVAK1 lm OF CAUFORMA 

MANDEIMAN1A 

Nine excelleffl Mandetbroi \ct pronrams in«.luUmK 
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Set 

DESKBENCH 

A 1/3 Workbench with Dcskbcnch Modular 
System m^ulled. plus a .li%k u( mr* lions St a 
an i •( <xiiet beeec Thre* Dbk »ct. 

FONT. UB 

A Ul*rjr> <>l i (MfcUntics each wrth a dozen fana 
all can be displayed and selected bv lcon> A 
Single dbk. 

TOOLKIT SERIES 

System, DUk, l<'»n . Pnnl. Desktop Tools ot 
lliliucs Five DUk Set 

ELECTRIC WORD 

The Bible (King limes version) wiih Texira 
Editor you . an i ui, pasic and save lo disk nre.it 
for writing sermons <ir doing bible studies eu 
Three Dbk Set. 

All PREMIER SOFTWAREtm is sold and 
distributed as in the ISA with FUU. colour 
labels and info sheet, see what you've 
been missing and what you should have 
received last time! 



& 



t-O 



T.Bag 1 m 49 Fish 1-490 

Amos Licenceware, Taifun & Slipped 

Disks Amos PD, Amigos 

Sl Snag A LOTS MORE 



• POSTAGE; U.K. & BFPO: POSTAGE 50p P&P, IF YOU ORDER 10 YOU GET A FREE DISK. 

Europe: Please add 20p per disk. World: Please add 40p per disk. Credit Cards and Postal Orders 

will ensure despatch within hours! II \ mi want it tomorrow, phone us today! 



121 



* 



< 



1 



< 



PD DISK PRICES 



1 -9 disks = £1.50 each 
10 -19 disks = £1.25 each 
20 or more = £1 .00 each 

PLEASE NOTE: 

2 disk sets are charged as 2 
single disks, 3 disk sets as 3 

single disks, etc. 



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is included in the price 

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Europe add £1 .50 to order 

Rest of World add £2.50 



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is available tree ot charge To 

obtain yours, send us a 

stamped addressed 

envelope (9" x 6"). or ask tor 

one with your order. 



ABUHEVIATIONS USED 



" = 1 meg needed 

(X) = 18 and over only 

(please state age) 

Figures in brackets refer to 

number of disks in set 



122 



WE ALSO STOCK 
FRED FISH DISKS 
AMOS RD. DISKS 

T.B.A.G. DISKS. 

4 

AMIGOS DISKS 

ASK FOR THEM 

BY NAME! 



P D. PACKS 



8 disks for £10 

A greet way for new Amiga 

owners Id check out what p d 

it all about Each pack 

contains 8 disks and « juat 

£10 par pack! 

GAMES PACK 

37 Tifles on 8 disks including 
Asteroids. Titea, BsJty 2. Sys 

Pool. YachtC. Invaders. 

H-Ball. Fruit Machine, Block 

Off, ShootOut Peter's 

Quest and many moral 

DEMOS PACK 

Some of the moat popular 

demoe in the library: Coma. 

Wild Copper. Cebrt 90. Elvira 

Mental Hangover. Rebate 

Megademo 2. Pain la Just The 

Beginning, and Popeye Meets 

The Beachboysl 

SOUNDTRACKER SPECIAL 

The great PD muaic maker. 

plua instruments, songs 

modules, nppers and morel 

Make music or just have fun! 

HOME BUSINESS PACK 

A suite of programmea tor 

twee who want to dabble m 

the serous side: Nag, Bank n. 

Journal, QBase, Spread, 

Wordwright AmigaSpell. 

Inventory. MemoPad & morel 



DEMOS & ANIMATIONS 



016 Space Ace Demo 
065 Red Sector Megademo (2) 
069 Gymnast Animation * 
107 RAF Megademo (2) 
127 NewTek Demo (2) * 
157 Cool Cougar Animation • 
161 Kylie Minogue Demo (2) 
240 Puggs in Space Cartoon 
280 Trae Frog Animation * 
286 The AMOS Demo 
296 Umcycle Animation * 
399 NewTek Demo 3 (2) • 
463 Ervtra Demo 
646 Predators Megademo (2) 
744 Red Sector Cebrt Demo 
747 Popeye Meets Beachboya 
762 The Run Animation • 
773 Shark Animabon • 
625 Budbrain Megademo (X)(2) 
653 Dragons Lair Demo * 
854 B'eed/Home & Away Demo 
665 Coma Demo 
695 Tnp To Mars 
897 Scoopex Mantel Hangover 
906 Madonna Cartoon ■ 
947 Mars Flight Animation * 
954 Teenage Turttee Demo 
964 Operation Vark! 
966 Btoodsport2 
1001 Station at Khern " (3) 

1033 At toe Movies Anim ** 

1034 Stealthy 1 Animsbon • 
1043 Razor 1911: Vertical Inssnity 
1053 Not 9 O'Clock News 3 (2) 

1068 Epic Demo* 

1069 Not 9 O Clock News 4 (2) * 
1092 Phsraoh Animation * 
1093DPaint3Demo(2)* 

1105 Crionics Neverwhere Demo 
1110 Fractal Right 



GAMES DISKS 



117 Monopoly 

135 Classic Board/Card Gamee 

195 Electric Train Set 

251 Blizzard 

314 Breakout Conetrucbon Set 

315 Return to Earth 

496 Holy Grail Adventure * 

646 Star Trek (USA) (2) * 

660 Learn 4 Ptay (2) 

727 Star Trek (Fbchter) (2) 

957 Pipeline 

962 Dhpl 

967 Snekepit 

991 Jeopard* 
1004 Gamee Disk 9 
1230 Dragon Cava 
1245 Rings of Zon • 
1406 A59 Super Quiz 
1411 A62: Arcadia 
1510 Pick UpAPuzzte (2) • 
1512 Picture It (2)* 
1617 A110: Crossfire* 
1520 A115. BaJloonecy 
1528 At 30: Wooden Bell • 

1531 Simon Says/Space Maths 

1 532 A1 37: Tee Trial* 

1533 The Jar* 
1539 Megsbsll* 
1544 Seven Tilee 

1558 Adventure Solutions (2) 
1573 A142: Pair Crazy 
1577 A146: Frurt Machine * 
1576 A147: AMOS Games 2 
1579 A148: Demolition Miaeion * 
1560 A149: Gobbrt / Pontoon * 
1564 A153: Misate Commsnd 
1591 A160: Quizmaster* 
1608 A178: Mastermmd/Peir Up 
1610 A180: Dungeon Detver (2) 
1612 A182: Pboe Kingdom (2) 



UTILITIES DISKS 



051 Via.calc Spreadsheet 
061 UEdit Word Processor 

110 Disk Utiles 

111 Graft* LraliUee 1 

118 Graft x Ustrbee 2 

119 Amiga MCAD 

180 Psgeeetter Clip Art 

210 Icons! 

259 Ultimate Bootbkxk Coll (2) 

343 Intfomeker 

346 TV Graphics (2) 

346 APDC 26 (Programming) 

353 ShoWiz 2 

354 PowerPscker 2 2a 

410 DPaint Cartoon Brushes 
442 DPsint Fonts Disks (4) 
456 Chet Sotece Extravaganza 
456 HAM Radio Special (5) 
495 CkckOOS (CU Helper) 
516 A66k Aesemblef/C Compiler 
536 Red Devil Compacting Utile 
546 lconmsn*\l 
571 Jazzbanch 
560 Dope Intro Maker 
591 Business Card Maker 
595 Amateur Radio Datk 

632 Meeey0O6 

633 Analytical 

642 C Manual 

643 SIDW06 

66* Programming Disk 
662 Sound Appiicebone (2) 
664 Vidso Applications (2) 
697 Grsphics Management (2) 

901 THE Comma Dm* 

902 QEO Text Editor 

1022 AMOS/RAMOS Update 1.21 

1023 Future Composer 
1066 Zero Virus V3.0 
1071 Noisepleysr V3 



AMIGA PUBLIC DOMAIN SOFTWARE 

DEPT. AS (8), 145 EFFINGHAM STREET, ROTHERHAM, 

SOUTH YORKSHIRE S65 1BL 



DEMOS & ANIMATIONS 



1168 Fillet The Fish 

1190 Pussy :lnnership 

1200 Raiders of Lost Ark Anim • 

1229 Budbrain 2 

1236 hOckboxer Demo 

1236 Evil Dead Demo (X) * 

1246 LSD: Comix Disk 1 

1256 Killing Gams Show Demo 

1271 Legend of Billy Ths Kid * 

1280 Horizon: Sleeping Beg 

1287 Wrath of the Demon Demo 

1400 A61 Weird Science 

1453 More Aerotoons * 

1474 Syitem Violation Demo * 

1477 Ecstasy Demoe * 

1507 A100: AMOS Demo 2 

1616 A109. Weird Science 2 

1518 Panthorus Megsdemo (2) * 

1524 A124: Bob Maniacs * 

1525 A125: Benson Demo 2 * 
1529 Armageddon Demo * 

1540 Amy vs Walker Anim. * 

1541 Betmsn Animstion* 

1542 Pogo Anim (1 5 meg) 

1548 Jochen Hippel Sound Demo 
1561 Too Much 3D* 

1552 Magioan Anim V2 * 

1553 Steve's Anim Disk 1 

1554 Stave's Anim Diek 2 

1555 Steve's Anim Disk 3 
1566 Sieve s Anim [>sk 4 
1557 Steve's Anim Finsle Disk 
1560 Phenomene Enigma Demo* 
1566 A155: Panthorus Demo 2 
1598 A168: Curos 6 Stsuros (2) 
1626 "Do The Bart. Man" Damo * 
1660 Crionics: Totsl Destruction * 
1664 Siients. Blue House (2) * 



SLIDESHOWS 



078 VsJIsk) Fantasy Art (2) 
163 NASA Siideehow 
167 D-grviaw Siideehow 
171 Patrick Nagel Pictures 
185 Escher Slideshow 
238 TV Sports Basketball 
282 Forgotten Realms 
617 Neighbours SkJeehow 
725 Diggy Piggya Slideshow (2) 
742 Madonna Siideehow 
767 Cinem aware Siideehow 
814 Viz Siideehow 
831 Utopia Cartoon Slideshow 
891 Craspshow 
899 Madonna Slideshow 2 (2) * 
942 Gartleld Skdeehow 
966 Gorezone Siideehow (X) 
1044 Desert Island Siideehow 2 
1051 Total Recall Siideehow 
1062 Golems Gats Siideehow 
1073 Fraxkxi Fantasy Siideehow 
1062 Ann* Jones Sideshow 
1085 Comic Siideehow (X) 
1103 Girls of Sports Illustrated 
1210 TurtkM Siideehow 
1232 Jmi Hendm Siideehow 
1242 Back to The Future 
1272 Nemeats: Prologue 
1277 Frexion: Drvine Veuone (2) ' 
1279 Forgotten Realms 90 
1476 Nemeeis: Chapter 1 (2) * 
1480 The Age of Sleek 
1523 A121: Nik Williams Damo 

1546 Skywalkar D^«how 1 

1547 Skywaiker Digishow 2 
1549 DPamt Colour-Cycled Pics 
1561 Demons Siideehow 3 * 
1666 Meges Staff 



UTILITIES DISKS 



MUSIC DISKS 



052 Awesome Sounds 

061 J M Jarre - Definitive 

166 Vangelis* 

187 Crusaders Audio X 

237 Zee ■ Hip Hop Mu*c Disk 

335 Girls Need Love 

396 Powerlords: Power Musuc 1 

407 CO Ptsyer • 

409 Crueaders: Freakd Out) 

424 Made in Heaven (2) 

497 Amiga Chart 6 

518 Bopue Potupus 

534 Vcston Muse Masters 

552 Musk: Invasion 3 (2) 

654 Powerlords Powsr Musix 2 

713 Flash! Queen (2) 

722 Beatmastar Club Mix 

724 Tachnotronic Rama 

746 Crusaders Bacteria 

824 Digital Concert V 

833 DJDiecoLerf 2 

657 900 / Otygene Rem.x • 

866 Pen III Music Disk 

870 Bruno's Music Box 2 

910 Darkling Lords Muaic Disk 

914 Special Brothers Music 2 

922 Phalanx Beatbox 

924 Game Boy Muse Disk * 

930 Rebellion 

935 Madonna: Hanky Parky 

941 Soundtecker Jukebox 

959 Scorpions : Esrgasm II 

969 100 C64 Gamee Tunes 

970 Ths Comic Strip Remix 
976 Scoopex: Beast Sonbt 
962 E & L: Get Upl 

986 Amaze : Revolutions 
993 PSA Music Demodisk 1 
1026 Digital Concert VI 
1061 Captured Imagination 
1066 Exile Chipshop 
1077 Supenor Sounds VI. 1 
1107 Stop Right Nowl * 
1243 Chip Music FssOval 
1248 LSD: Supreme Music 1 
1284 Cava: Synthetic Power 
1292 Crusaders Does Genesis 
1505 A96: Muse 24 
1508 A101 : Auto Player VI. lb 
1522 A120: Muaic Player * 
1527 A1 29: Music Demo 1 
1600 A1 70: Music 27* 
1630 Accession: Sun Wind 



ACCESSORIES 



1095 Catalogue Workshop (2) 

1097 DTP Clip Art (2) 

1099 Video Graphica (4) 

1117 Gsneaotogy* 

1196 Soundtracksr V4 (2) 

1 222 Picturs Formst Converters 

1225 Hardware Protects Mag 

1226 ST Emulator 
1234 Tetre-Copy 
1253 Red Devil Utlroee 5 
12S5 Opt) Utilities 1 
1265 Cryptic LrMrtee 17 

1273 C-bght 

1274 Star Trekker 1 2 Music Prog 
1286 Mandlebrot Generator 1 85 * 
1294 Cheoa & Fractal Programs 
1360 DKB Trace (F»)h 397) 
1366 Fix Disk (Fish 403) 

1383 Menu Writer (F*h 420) 
1365 Art of Virus Killing 
1432 A83: AMOS Paint 

1450 New SuperKillers Dak 

1451 ElectroCAD 

1452 AmiBsse 
1473 ARP 13 

1534 MEDV3.0 

1535 Master Virue Killer V2.0 

1536 North CV1.3 (pecked) 
1637 North CV1.3 (unpacked)(2) 
1543 Quantum Tool Dak 12 
1545 SpectraPamt V3 

1 550 FlexiBass V2 

1569 At 38: Spanish Tutor 

1585 A154: AMOS Progrsms 10 

1587 A156: Rippers Disk 

1606 A176: Database Master V2 

1629 ZX Spectrum Emulator 

1663 Dynamite Cut 4 Pasta Fonts 



3.5' BLANK DISKS 

10 FOR £4.99 
WITH DISK BOX £5 99 

50 FOR C22.S0 
WITH DISK BOX £26 50 

100 FOR £39.99 
WITH DISK BOX £44 99 



DISK BOXES 

FUP-TOP 

10 capacity . £1 49 

LOCKABLE 
40 capacity . . £4 99 
50 capacity £6 99 

80 capacity £7 99 

100 capacity £9 99 



MISCELLANEOUS 

Mouse Mat £299 

Keyboard Cover £3 99 

Monitor Cover £5 99 

Printer Cover £4.99 

Mouse House £199 

Drive Cleaning Kit £2 99 
Printer Cable ... £6 99 

Stereo Leads (2m) . . £2 99 

1.000 disk labels £12 50 

VHS Library Cases 
£6 99 tor 10 



"CRAZY JOE'S" LOGO 

T-SHIRTS (M/L/XL) 

White £3 99 

SWEAT SHIRTS (M L XI ) 

White £8 99 

(PLEASE STATE SIZE) 



*»«JSP»i 



(ontmvtd from pogt 1 20 

recognise the face (and the pumping 
trousers) of Johnny Fartpants. A good 
disk, packed with useful backup stuff. 
Value for money 9/10 

Home Utils 

Electric 9 

The Home Utils disk contains some 
programs thought to be of use in the 
home. Two calculation programs, 
CalKey and Multicalc, allow you to 
keep abreast of household finance, 
while DietAid helps you count the 
calories by adding up ingredients to 
give you the calorific value of a 
recipe. And finally there is Furnish, a 
program which lets you draw an 
area and fill it with furniture, to try 
out a design for your rooms before 
you stick the stuff in it. A bit thin as 
disks go; the programs are 
reasonably useful, but I just can't 
decide if it's interesting enough. 
Value for money 4/10 

Icon Utils 

Electric 36 

The Icon Utils disk contains obvious 
programs like 8rusr»2/con, Itb (Icon 
To Brush) and the IE icon editor, but 
more esoteric types of prog are here 
too, like the CNVPSGI and 
CNVNEWS programs. These two 
items convert graphics from the 
Commodore 64 programs 
Newsroom and PrintShop. Exactly 
how you are meant to get the 
graphics from your 64 to the Amiga 
isn't stated, but provided you have 
some kind of way to get the graphic 
on to an Amiga disk (an emulator like 
the PD program The 64 Emulator 
might do the job), these programs do 
all the conversion from C64 code 




For a superb demo, you could do far worse than treat 
yourself to Phenomena's Enigma disk. 



!*•• 




segment to IFF file. Smartlcon allows 
you to add a gadget to the corner of 
all your windows to iconify them at a 
touch. Makelcon is an icon toolkit, 
and finally Icontype enables you to 
search a disk and convert the type to 
suit your purposes - altering a disk 
icon to be a file icon and that sort of 
thing. A tightly made disk, and 
packed with useful utils for icon 
creation and tweaking. 
Value for money 8/10 

Compacting Utils 

Electric 6 

Compacting Utils is another of these 
EC disks that was more fun to play 
with than I was expecting. I thought it 
would just be Arc, Zoo. Lharc, Zip, 
Warp and all that. But this is a power 
packed disk, ahem, containing Power 
Packer 2.3b, a matched pair of 
programs called DiskComp and 
DeComp and a bewildering 
variety of disk file 
crunchers: for example, 
crunchers on the disk 
include offerings such 
as TVtoncruncher, 
Megacruncher, 
Mastercruncher and 
so on. This is very 
useful, as you con 
not only crunch 
files with these 
programs, but 
also uncrunch 
files too, meaning 
that you can get at 
text files which 
ordinarily you'd 
have to use PPmore 
to get a look at. 
Value for money 

......,.„,...„,„.•/ 10 



Is this really what 

they meant by a 

Megacruncher? 



DEMOS 



Darkness Megademo II 

17 Bit disk 1047 

The Darkness team are new, but 
obviously they've done another demo 
before this one as it's numbered 2. 
And, unlike many new demo teams, 
the quality of their work is top notch. 
The MegaDemo begins with a 
wicked intro, featuring ray-traced 
text. Then it goes to the program 
selector, an A 1000 on a desk with a 
row of disks in front of it. You select 
the demo by clicking on the disk, and 
it animates itself into the drive 

Of the seven demos on offer, I 
liked the Total Record demo, where 
you get more bobs on screen than the 
human mind can stand, loads of 
animations and music, and a lot of 
skilled coding by Atlantic, graphics 
by Troglobyte and logos by Zona 
Norte. The music, very classily done 
by Ntco, runs throughout and 
provides a lot of good background to 
the startling visuals. Expect to see a 
lot more of the Darkness team in the 
near future. 
Value for money 9/10 

Tuff Enuff & Bass-O-Matic 

NBS disks L61 1 , L612 & L613 

The Crusaders have cracked down 
on the spreading of their wares to 
any and every PD house, and have 
begun to license their demos to 
certain houses only. To celebrate this, 
NBS (as one of the said houses) have 
sent me a pile of the Crusaders' back 
catalogue disks, and very impressive 
it is too. The old classics Bacteria and 
Audio-X were there, but also the 
newer demos Bass-O-Matic and Tuff 
Enuff. Bass-O-Matic is probably more 
what you'd call a music demo, but as 
well as the music on the two disks, 
you also have a selection of Calvin & 
Hobbes cartoons to read (if you don't 






.which shows the best 
in Amiga programming. 

know who they are then you should!) 
plus a lirrle space invaders game. A 
very slick demo and very enjoyable. 
Value for money 10/10 

The Tuff Enuff megademo comprises 
three sections: one short Calvin & 
Hobbes cartoon (yes, again!), then a 
piece of piano music plus a spinning 
globe, lovely samples well 
sequenced, with the keys played in 
time to the tune on the screen. The 
demo ends with the most eye- 
boggling filled vector text I've ever 
seen. A very professional and visually 
arresting piece of coding. 
Value for money 9/10 

Enigma 

17 Bit disk 913 

And finally, top of the heap is 
Phenomena's Enigma demo. 
Phenomena are Firefox and Tip 
(music), Azatoth (coding) and Uno 
(graphics). Enigma is a collection of 
very simple demos, very cleverly 
sequenced music and bogs of 
surprises. First you get treated to a 
smooth starfield behind the titles, 
which seems to change direction qs if 
you're spinning around in a very 
agile lirrle space ship. Then the stars 
part to reveal a cube with a starfield 
on one plane and vector filled 
graphics on all the other faces. The 
cube spins and the faces animate at 
the same time. The effect is not unlike 
the kind of TV effects you get on a 
Quantel system. Then, while your 
head is still whizzing around from 
that, the team moves on to do a take 
off of the Trip To Mars demo of a few 
months ago, under the heading "and 
now a REAL trip to Mars". The 
vectors are clean and animate very 
realistically. The ground is a 
graduated copper list, and gives the 
effect of the ground fading away into 
the distance. Then, without a breath, 

CMtiMMd M pOft 124 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1 99 1 



123 



P^^MAjN- 

continued from page 123 

the team moves on to do a similar 
vector demo, but this time the objects 
in the world are all light source- 
shaded. There follows a series of 
bouncing balls, and finally the end 
message is displayed, using what the 
team calls the Star Wars scroller, 
which scrolls away from you in 
perspective like the titles of Star 
Wars. Just when you think it's the 

end, Azatoth throws in a demo of his 
new PD ray-tracer program called 
Perfect View, and gives you a taste of 
what it can do with an animated ray 
traced picture. All in all, a fun 
packed and alarmingly clever demo, 
which bodes well for the future of this 
excellent team. 
Value for money 10/10 



APPLICATIONS 







794864 bytes free. 





Hi 



MHBBBi 



Procrran Seleoto 



fi h 



i_co Frannni* 



More fab programs you'd normal 
have to pay an arm and a leg for, 
but PD or shareware so you can 
spare your cash for better things. All 
the applications this month are from 
Electriclown. 

Sozobon C Compiler 

UL-22A & MB 

The Sozobon C Compiler is a fully 
featured C environment, which has 
spent a lot of time being updated 
over the last four years. I remember 
talking about it a number of years 
ago, and it didn't work very well at 
all back then. The main reason was 
that it had been ported over from the 



Electriclown's MIDI Utils disk - great news for those of you with a MIDI interface for your Amiga. 



Atari ST. All the major problems (like 
not actually working) appear to have 
been ironed out in this new version, 
and you should find it quite easy to 
start writing C code with this 
package. All the parts of the program 
are there for you to use, and as PD 
programming languages go, 2c has 
had more work done to it than most. 
Value for money 6/10 

Assembler Pack 

Electric 20 

The Assembler Pack gives you a suite 
of programs to use if you want to get 
into the world of assembly language 



CRUSADERS 




Does Genesis 



programming. You get the A68K 
assembler by Charlie Heath, and the 
Blink linker program, plus Textra text 
editor, the Mon monitor program and 
the Top optimiser program. Not a 
beginners pack in itself, although 
working in tandem with a beginner's 
guide to assembly language 
programming it could help to give 
you a leg up to greatness. Who 
knows, you could be a demo 
programmer within a few monthsl 
Value for money 8/10 

Communications 

Electric 3 

The Comms Pack is a good starter if 
you want to break into the world of 
comms. Got a modem but nothing to 
drive ft with 9 Well, here is a copy of 
NComm (as used by well seasoned, 
leathery old comms buffs like myself), 
plus a bunch of utils to help you 
along comms' lost highway. As well 
as NComm, which is all you really 
need, you get a number of bolt-on 
modules to do various tricky jobs like 
updating your phone list and call log 
and so on. Smart work. 
Value for money 9/10 



Crusaders Does Genesis is a music demo fromthe Crusaders team, 
featuring tunes like Mama and That's All. And very good it is, too. 



Home 

Electric 14 

The Home Video pack is choc full of 
utils for the home video enthusiast. 
No, it's not a PD Video Toaster 
(although it won't be long before 
some German hacker comes up with 
that, I shouldn't wonder), but it does 
do titling and supplies you with a set 
of utils you will find useful if you like 
video. My favourite is WOT (Video 
Tools On Tap), a set of resident tools 
which give you fade-outs and -ins, 
plus test patterns and screens to help 
you centre your screen and so on. 
Also good is SportsText, which 
enables you to put text on screen 
using a genlock at the touch of a 
button. Having pre-selected your text, 



you can flash it on to the screen 
when the need arises - you could 
display the name of a player or some 
statistics, for instance. Very clever 
stuff, which I'll be passing along to 
Gary Whiteley for a full test 
Value for money 9/10 

Spreadsheets 

Electric 5 

Spreadsheets are a bit of a yawn 
reolly but they can be very useful, 
especially if you work for yourself, for 
doing your accounts and so on. On 
this disk you have a selection of 
things to work with, from the simple 
Spread and SCalc, right up to Vc 
and VisiCalc (not actually VisiColc 
but a clone). Also included is a 
program called CalcKey, which is a 
pop-up calculator. All you do is press 
the [Alt] and - keys and the 
calculator appears on your screen 
Value for money 7/10 

Databases 

Electric 4 

The Databases disk features 
Database Wizard, Disc Cataloguer, 
DisSecretary, and Quickbase. 
Database Wizard is essentially a 
mailing list program, although you 
can easily adapt it to hold any kind 
of information. Disc Cataloguer is a 
program which helps you keep your 
disks in order by filing the directories, 
as does DisSecretary. Quickbase is a 
short and sweet database designed 
to keep lists of family and 
friends/contacts, and can be 
launched just to check a name 
against an address and phone 
number. It's not the most complex 
package in the world, just 
quick'n'dirty, hence the name. 
Frankly I prefer Ami&ose II as a PD 
database, but that's just my two 
penn'orth. 
Value for money 6/10 

cofltttwd on page 127 



124 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1 99 1 



LIT 



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hi i starudttoi W2 SoundtiiM kw door 
79J. Rrti Sadat dome mafcei \ i grail! 1*1 
735. Rcxl Base, a nion- frv-nrth O.ii.i Imm- 
843. Iconmanta. a disk full nf l< on mil- 
640. Mooed VI u, a movable obtod ecttoi 
623 C-lJfihi. ra> iracni*! program VGQ wn*\ 
613. Soundirdi kcr PrormKhmal il'roir.K km 
*HM Miisicr \ Inis killer \2 I. Irnlfli tl 

H77. NaHHCV1.3a2diMksri£l.n 

898 Audio \U R u VI. I full mI mill Mrs 



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AiiMiN* n .nor IhlMim ofTlrUil nHrav* 
< otoui * \' iiii*;. nipnt»<flb la ^< i ir 
Hmlbrath II »i iw» disk fn>m HudtHdm 
Poaq bienMp good piptaks and |udo 

1 miv.iI Ramr ilnnu in shuu nfT \nur Amlfia 

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i -\.u i-ii aiilmaiioti supf*r maiukOmiB <*t 
Cuul hldur auiMtii Hasina t-ffctls hen- 
Malnlall/nl, * ryptubunit^re superb demo 
ChromHim a ireal pc^i demo by S((>opi*.\ 
purpi* \rw large vector rouUnea 
Fractal nigm aniraaUon, unusual demo 
Golam Galea Mega drum II. wortii filing 
DraaonB demo I, has toveij raster eflteta 

Lin iS Mirks mriw t\v\\\u { < p ( nis In Ihls 

tbtal Rebates fn»m Lhe Steve Wrieiu show 
IMal RetilaJ, from titt Sieve Wrtgln slum 

inui k*i mvi* imt]! ihe Steve HMghJ Bho* 

loi.il K« NpM\ Itinn Uh Slc\i* Uivlil shou 
UiUl Ki i itimi frtini Ux 1 Strve \\nel\i show 





l^ets m Span a I ut' 1 and hinm dODO 
Iraq demo, rather I omfc al anttMUoo 

Rrwn0E Honor Straw, l<ir pqidMAi oab 
Stamp CoDc^i tni an nld bul wh^I drtnti 
Hllrt Tiw Ftah, rimlai i«» Pukks demo 
S!i:\ts animatkias I, haa h cote anlRM 
Steva animaiions 2 H haa 6 * ate anuna 
Str\**s animal Inns ;i has 'i cute allium 
Sieves animaUona 4, lua 5 cote aidma 

strtw* aiainaUnns *» has »> t ut< iinlms 






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larff I lw Ckwn Kt«>d irafks of mode 

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i Im- i *m nw L >n remit coioci it now (•» 

m\» M< Wtul I WflMt, San Hi\ sample 
SovndHoTDOBII 17 (raiks of musk (•) 
II onh 1 1 mild Sttdnn Vhiii^MimmI sample 
Kr\uimi<Kisb) kviiMMlielb* larre 
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BcmibUie ftise H hb trades to Itatrn to 
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Ihr loMo«tn« -irLI4«r*bi tllnk BBBl 
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)1 Darttstai^a mush B 1 1 pvai lonet 

17 Blectrt tooth tq Debbie Gtoott peal! 

20 LumiH-nai k aoog (mm \iont\ Pyuon 

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\a FWIowtayoa, b> Uadoana great song 

Ml l> \lnb finiNlc 4 '2 disks nf cimhI nttiKlr 



liilbiHliifj jnhiMtliiiis .ill trtjulrt I mru 

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\mi veraiM tbc Walker an revtewd 
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liatman ihe movie, funnj and amuslnfl 
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siealth> 11 Manonrres, peal cartoon 
The Lotoa ^^ chase from \gatmn 
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Thr vers t&moofl "Gymnaat' 1 demo 

Kducallnn i if t <Hit i i)\w \i \<t\ f i j r 1 1 1 \ 



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drwu eo**t% L I **H ptt'a^ rrnimihri 
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199 Red Sector*, a must fof demn CDlei Ion* 
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385. Budbram. mrr IH vrs for this **tny 
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liltt LntfTtAfU) i*i LPU18 

Utr* \tru« VrtrtnNffM LP0I9 

[POM ttfrtlVtiin |*| liU20 

I.I'IMI t^i«ui(iuwr» LP02I 



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V.isi %(«■ ks .iif 'n-t«t vi no w.itlirui 
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tte -in- open Hkim-Tpni Monday-KrHko 

and Warn- 4pm Saturdays 

oiu « an 1j\ ««ttl or^ei to h» nn 

(0535) Mi74Ha 

HIMMI M OKHtK t IUsKS 

n\ i Kll»n i:\kiis 



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l>Kks maikril ("! 
iri|Ulir I nn* j.* 

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RIIMKKl .HII'N 
B021 4VM. orym 

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NOW TO ORDIR 

JVk Write down Uk- number of disks 
yiHl require and send It ulth your i heque. a postal 
nrdei oi your \ness-\lsii i.ird drUlLs lo - 
MIHr Mounr' lh»|M \S |»ilmrow Si reel kel«hlev \\< -M Yorkshire 
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Ill JHHMH 

1(1 J'KJH t-2 
NOTICi ( TKADI DUPLICATING i Mil romnien l.d dupllfuUiu; plant Is avall.ible 
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give you a quote, fast turnaround and Inch «r.ide disks fonnats .lviiluihh 1 ll*M PC, ST, AMIGA. 



From ONLY 



AMIGA 
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•pi>p 



UTILITIES 





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U900O000 AsMTfiicf 

LAS) HM Sector D»^o 
1Mb 

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tft'O Co m pete C 

uv<uaot>m 

US20O6W3O 

W 1 3 

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Repiacemeni 



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Program «3 Disks, i Meg 
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i Meg tor good results 



MUSIC U 


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MM57 Sun Sown* Ol 


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MD913 0GAMuBC 10 


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the Heart 


inc Mcha* 


MD97B C P on a (Mi 


Jackson 


MD98& The Wmkeri 


MD901 Enayna 1 Meg 


Sono »w» 


MDB03 Anotnet Day In 


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ThanhiPn* 


Tra* 1 


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MD9&6 Dttpecne Mode 


MD305 Its Menial 


M0987 Total Remi. 


M0B06 Pel Shop Boys 


M0995 Dmy Dancing 


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MDd9B Snap ■ The 


Not 


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MD53? Muse Maestro 


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|MUSIC UTILITIESp 



MU399 Future Composer 

MU263 Jamcracke' 

MU003 SouodtracKer Special 

MU300 Games Musk: Creator 

MU245 StarlrefcKer 

MU299 Startrekker 1 2 Sequence 

MU398 8 Channel Soundtracher 

MU189 Soundtracker Compilation 

MU200 Ntotsetracker and 

Sounotracker 
MU007 Med Music Creator 
MU092 Noiselracker 1 2 Plus Wits 
MU028 Mega instruments Disk 
MU236 Soundtracker Modules 
MU367 Musk: Editor 
MU087 Soundlracker Boot Disk 
MU31D Inslruments 2 tO Varous 
MU072 Soundtracker Mega System 
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MU370 Protracker V2.2 
MU004 Ripped to Shreds Full ot 

music rippers 
MU401 D J Samples 1, 2. & 3 
MU539 Sound Application:. 

MUt56 Sample ST 01 ■ ST-99...Full 
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modules Too many to list, lull 
description on catalogue disk 



^ m ^^^ ta09 Catalogue Disk 





DEMOS 



OG700 Tf«awe bkv« 
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Fish 1-450: Separate catalogue disk £1.00 

Tea Bag 1-49 + Amos 1-147 

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1-5 disks = £1.25 each 

6-10 disks = £1.15 each 

11 -over = 99peach 



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Li Cocurl 

L10 Wort Factory 

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112 Hypn land 

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0112 POXtfB Pro 

0079 

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£0.99 
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QUI Turn! 
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01M 

0200 

0201 

0202 

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0204 

0205 

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0210 

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0212 

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0236 
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0136 
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(Often copies are made onto Extra Quality 
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l FKEP0W9L.«ti every 10 Date (Wed 1 
PAST DELVBtf .^Nobody (toes it ox** ■ 

i torrwnumofterequremeni 

l f=REE FUU PD LIST - News mloandtips with every order 

1 MtoaWGisiMtwmvtomitoMfMs... 
% TDK Dyson eK artrevei posstte) 



LlSAneShapa 

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ns: 

C350 

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MUSIC 



Sweet Music 

NBSL610 

Music demos continue to proliferate 
in the PD world, with the most 
intriguing coming from Crusaders. 
And why not, since that is how the 
team made its name originally. Two 
spring to mind this month: the 
Crusaders Does Genesis demo and 
Sweef Music. 

Sweet Music is a single disk with 
a mere seven tunes, and is very easy 
on the ear, although there's nothing 
really original. So a mere... 
Value for money 5/10 

Genesis 

NBS M231 

What really did impress me were the 
Genesis tunes on Crusaders Does 
Genesis. Mostly, music disks Fall into 
one of two categories: dance music 
or dance music. Sometimes there's 
even some dance music. But here is a 
successful attempt to try something 
very different, and that is to emulate 
those popular old hippies, Genesis, 
and provide a full rendition of a 
selection of big G tunes. The tunes in 
question are Mama. Afterglow, 
Abacab, That's All and Entangled. 
The tunes are very lifelike cover 
versions, and each tune is 
accompanied by a small animation 
of the band live, a different anim for 
each tune. Very impressive, and no 
matter what you think of the music (I 
quite like it, being a bit of an old 
hippy myself), you have to respect 



the skill and originality of the demo. 
Value for money 8/10 

Musical Creators 

Electric lown 17 

On the technical side of music we 

have the Music Creators collection, 

which has just three programs; but 

what programsl Two versions of 

Soundtracker, version 2.5 and 

the eight-channel version, 

plus Noisetracker 1 .2. 

You will need the 

sample disks, or 

make your own 

using the PLSTED 

program, but 

this won't stand 

in the way of the 

dedicated 

tracker. 

Soundtrackers are 

the best way to make 

music on the Amiga 

using samples, and although 

MED and OctaMED ore better. 

still a very worthy collection. 

Value for money 7/10 




Although slightly limited in terms of what you actually do with it, 
the images from Demons Slideshow are certainly impressive. 



MIDI 

EUctriclown 16 

The MIDI Utils disk is only any good 
if you have a MIDI interface and a 
synthesiser The programs are all 
about the Casio CZ-101 , except one 
for the Yamaha DS55, so you'll need 
to have either one of these plugged 
in if you want to get a taste of these 
programs. The CZ end is particularly 
good, giving you an editor program, 
plus a means of saving the banks of 
sound in and out. There are plenty of 
sounds supplied on the disk, so you 



can easily experiment with new 

sounds. 

Value for money 8/10 



GRAPHICS 



Clip Art 

1 7 Bit 954-959 

The 1 7 Bit clips look as though they 
are grabbed from PC or Mac clip art 
disks, as the pictures are obviously 
fuzzy grabs from black-and-white 




Here's one to frighten the kiddies with. Yet another offering from the Demons Slideshow disk, this 
one's more a scream shot than a screen shot. (You're fired - Ed.) 



clips. Why they are so fuzzy I don't 
know, but the effect is not too 
pronounced, and in a DTP document 
they don't look too bad On screen 
they look a little odd, but that's to do 
with the strange anti-aliased edges 
you get on the sharp corners. There 
are too many graphics for me to look 
at all six disks, but I tried to check out 
as many as I could, and they cover a 
very wide range of subjects. Clever 
stuff, and good value. 
Value for money 7/10 

Demons Slideshow 

Crazy Joe's 1561 

The Demons Slideshow is a good 
piece of kit, with some very good 
graphics, although some are a bit on 
the ropy side. By and large it's an 
impressive display, but it's only any 
real use if you can grab out any of 
the frames and examine/steal/edit 
them for your own purposes. If that's 
not your leaning then the show is 
bound to pall after the first couple of 
viewings. My favourites from the 
collection are the Robocop 2 picture, 
and the huge gold skull with horns 
(shown on the left). 
Value for money 4/10 



DISK MAGAZINES 



The Crusaders are a well known 
demo team, but what you may not 
realise is that they are also the 
publishers of the Eurochart disk 
magazine. The Jon 9 1 and May 9 1 
issues of the chart were sent to me by 
NBS, disks D240 and 1614 
respectively. The trick with the chart 
is that you, and every other demo 
collector in Europe, vote for your 

continued on page 1 29 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1991 



127 



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PkMfta acM £2 95 P&P 10 your orOof a 
on5af*TX3 any <tom* from ma b#K>w 
taction An r^anlwova «a *a#>i by ftoya* Mai 
P ofoWfarca 



STACKABLE banx box 


£900 


POSSOBOX (MOID 150) 


C20.00 


50 DtSKBOX LOCKING 


cs.so 


40 DtSKBOX LOCKING 


C450 


SliUPAK CASE 1 on 


CI 25 


SLMPAK CASE i Off 


esoo 


SUMPAKCASElOoff 


ceoo 


AMIGA DUSTCOVtRS 


C300 


HOUSE MATS 


£210 


STAR LC 10 RIBBONS 


C350 


3 5* DISK CLEANER 


C250 


50 RAINBOW LABELS 


£125 


10 JS-DS/DOBULK 


£450 


25 3 5-D&0DBULK 


CM 00 


50 3.5* DSDD BULK 


£2100 


75 SS'DS-OOBULK 


Ol X 


1003 5*DS.OOBUCK 


£35 00 



UQKTcranATfoji 

mmmU 

AOVAMCE KA44 I 
OMtTOOpMoOOt 

AGATROfc£c#*i 

ontfphpjM 

TW) AOATRO*! ANIM5 Urvo o«ro«oni QwUPy 

AntmoiOfo Pom T ■JgNpI 

TQA OVHAWC HAM PtCTURf S WfPO*'*** 

ptduroo m 4000 ccowo M0*if3 

756 NEXT PtJiUUM Coiocaon of Opvi omvR *co 

ooh muoc W OoCA Uooo 

GAMES 



•II 

— 1 rrmrnn- n 



AJ our dm an TOP OUAUTV PW 
nun**f«. ^tfw<du4*)r W» >J 
WDM art our 10 

R«m»mt«r ihM tfwy rt»« to b» 
Mcaum «« havo ro ummmtttr, atr 
Fof ttro* QuanMM* oMmm c«i *v 0u» 
(MCOunlB 



OUICKSHOT PrTMON 
QUICKSHOT APACME 

AMIGA EXTERNAL DRIVE 
S12K RAM NO CLOCK 
512K RAM WITH CLOCK 



Cn 95 

crso 

£2Q»5 
C34M 




Hi AmtgafrMk* ' Hop* y<«j l*» »* 
montn* Advtfi dono on tfw Amtot M 
ProP^*2 by M». G*«#llogt fly*ng out 
10 NBS. Volly. Gotdtttr. Vm»« Frt«. 
■WtorcNps, Uo». 4-MM. Dan. Kris, 
r«*Bbug. Nick. R«4 Davil. Saga. Cava. 
Mark. Laa Charti. Sua, all 
cualonw* and anyona ara Know I 

START COMPUTER SYSTEMS ARE IN 
N0JWAY ASSOCIATED WTTH SCS Of 
WASHINGTON. 



amm™ 



, 



(Mliwed from poge 1 27 

favourite stuff, like records and 
magazines, videos and movies, and 
the Crusaders code the results into a 
flashy and informative 
demo/magazine. There's all kinds of 
interesting menu and file reader 
structures in the thing, not to mention 
a range of facts and figures that 
boggles the mind. Strange how fickle 
the European public is, too. 
Fascinating reading, and personally I 
can't wait until the next chart comes 
out in the autumn. 
Value for money 7/10 



GAMES 



And finally, the leisure end of the 
market. I told you about the neat 
games on the Fish CD, but how 
about those on more general 
release? Electriclown disk 7 and 17 
Bit disk 97 1 may have the answer. 

Game Disk 1 

Electriclown 7 

Game Disk 1 has a version of 
Breakout, or Arkanoid, plus a car 
racing game not unlike a slot car 
race, and the Drip game which is a 
sort of Pacman-type thing. Drip is 
excellent, and deserves high praise 



for its professional polish. And it 

makes a change from the 

interminable TRON light cycle 

games! 

Value for money 5/10 

Mental Image 

17 Bit 971 

Speaking of professional, this 17 Bit 
disk has a trio of extremely 
professional games on it. The Mental 
Image crew have come up with three 
arcade-quality games. At the 
beginning of the disk is a fake 
NOVALOAD sequence, a sound and 
sight familiar to you if you came to 
the Amiga via the C64. And so are 
the games, as they are Gridrunner, a 
clone of an old Jeff Minter game, 
Invaders , a Defender clone, and 
Rebound, a Breakout clone. The 
games on this disk are much more 
appealing, and very commercial 
looking. No-one would know you got 

the games for free (unless they read 
this column!). 

Value for money 9/10 

It's goodbye from me 

If you hove any questions about PD, 
then why not drop me line at PD, 
Amiga Shopper, 30 Monmouth 
Street, Bath, Avon BA1 2BW. Or 
why not e-mail me on Prestel 



(219997854), Telecom 
Gold (74:mik2077), The 
Direct Connection 
(uadl 135@dircon.co.uk) or 
CIX (snouty©cix.co.uk) fXV 

Those who started their 
computing on a 
Commodore C64 will find 
Gridrunner (right) 
familiar: it's a clone of 
Jeff Minter s game from 
many years ago. 









Amiga Mouse PD 

1 82A, High street 

Margate 

Kent 

•0843 228166 

Amiganuts United 

169 Dale Valley Road. HoUybrook. 
Southampton SGI 6QX 

• 0703 785680 

Akore Shareware 
7 Fisherga'e Point, 
Lwr Parliament st, 
Nottingham NG1 1GD 

• 0800 252221 

AMOS PD Library 
25 Park Road, 
Wigan WN6 7AA 

• 0942 495261 

Angl.a PDL 

1 15, Ranebgh, Felixstowe, 

Suffolk IP 1 1 7HU 

» 0394 283494 

Bl interchips 

Clirfe House, 
Primrose Street, 
Keighley, BD2 1 4NN 

• 0535 667469 

ConDo PD Library 

1 28 Portland Crescent, 

Sronmore, 

Middlesex, 

HA71NA 

•08 1 204 3954 

CeN Computers 

354, High street 
Chatham 
Kent, ME4 4NP 
•0634 831870 



CLS 

PO Box 7, 

Bletchley, 

Milton Keynes, MK2 3YL 

« 0908 640763 



PO Box 1 57, Hayes, 
M.ddlesex UB3 4SR 
Crazy Joe's 

1 45 Effingham Street, Rotherham, 
Sooth Yorks S65 1 BL 
» 0709 829286 



Applications 

1 1 8 Middle Crockerford, 
Basildon, Essex SS 16 4JA 

• 0268 553968 

Electriclown 

90 Notley Rood, 
Lowestoft, Suffolk, 
NR33 0OG. 
» 0502 566752 

EMPDL 

54 Watnall Road, 

Hucknall, 

Nottingham NG1 5 7LE 

• 0602 630071 

Goldstar Computers 

PO Box 2, Tyldesley, Manchester, 
M29 7BN. 

• 0942 895320 

* 

ICPUG 

PO Box 1309, 
London N3 2UT 

• 08 1 346 0050 

Kernow Software PD Library 
5 1 Ennors Road, 
Newquay, Cornwall. 

• 0637 872217 



Of course, we 
don't play any 
games ourselves. 
But were told that 
those who do 
rave about Drip, 
from Electriclown. 
You'll find it on 
Game Disk 1, 
which also 
contains a 
version of 
Breakout, called 
Arkanoid. 



NBS 

l32GunviHeRood, 

Newport, 

Isle Of Wight PO30 5LH 

• 0983 529594 
New Wove Software 
POBoxICO. M on ch erter 
Ml 1JE«061 839 5378 

PAS Amiga PD Club 
3StJohnsWol. Sttves, 
Cornwall TR26 2U 

PCS International PO 

Freepost WN5157F. 
H.ncley. Wigon, 
tones WN2 3BR 

• 0942 521577 

PD Direct 

DepfASH, Unit 3. 
Railway Ent Centre. 
Shehon. Stoke ST4 7SH 

• 0782 28 1 506 

PDSoft 

1 Bryant Avenue, SoutKendOn-Seo, 
Essex SSI 2YD 

• 0702 612259 

Postal PO 

77A htotHnghom Rood, Eastwood, 
Notts NG16 3AJ • 0773 531991 

Public Dominator 

PO Box 801 , Bishop's Stanford. 
Herts CM23 3TZ • 0279 757692 

Riveraene PDl 

30a School Road, Tilehursf, 

Reodtng, Berkshire RG3 5AN 

• 0734 452416 



Washington, Tyne & Wear 
NE38 8HQw091 419 2805 

Sector 16 

160HolowWay,Cowiey, 
Oxford 

» 0865 774472 

Seventeen Bit Software 

PO BOX 97, Wakefield, 
WestYorksWFl 1XX 
• 0924 366982 



78 HonJley Rood, Bormston, 



Unrt 5, Strotfceld Pork, 
Eleflro Avenue, Woterlooville, 
Hants P07 7XN 

• 0705 266509 

Start Computer Systems 
Barbican House, 
Bonner sfieid, 
Suodertand S*6 0AA 

• 091 564 1400 

Vally PD 

POBox 15. Peterlee, 

Co Durham, SR8 1 NZ 

• 091 587 1195 

Virus Free PD 

23 Efeorough Rood, AAoredon, 
Swindon, Wib SN2 2LS 

• 0793 512321 

West midlands PD 

33 Sonnghill Rise. WribbenhoH, 
Bewcley,WorcsDY12 1EA 

• 0229 402747/400490 

Workbench PD 

1 Buccluech Street, 
Barrow-ln-f urness, 
Cumbria IA1 4 I SR 
» 0229 870000 



AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 4 • AUGUST 1991 



129 



TILL 



EXT TIME 



Your guarantee of value' 



This magazine comes from Future Publishing, a 
company founded just six years ago, but which 
now sells more computer magazines than any 
other publisher in Britain. We offer: 

Better advice. Our titles are packed with tips, 
suggesoons and explanatory features, written by 
the best m the business. 

Stronf «r reviews. We have a cast-*on poky of 
editorial independence, and our reviews give clear 
buying recommendations. 

Clearer design. You need solid information fast 
So our designers highlight key elements 
by using charts, diagrams, summary boxes, 
annotated photographs, etc. 

Greater relevance. At Future, editors operate 
under two golden rules: 

• Understand your readers' needs. 

• Satisfy them. 

More reader interaction. We draw strongly on 
readers' contributions, resulting m the Irvebest 
letters pages and the best reader tips. Buying one 
o* our magazines is l*e vxwng a nationwide user 
group. 

Bttter value for money. More pages, better 
Quality, magazines you can trust. 



Editor Stuart Anderton 

Production Editors Karl Foster, Ian 

Wrigley 

Technical Editor Cliff Ramshaw 

Designer Jacquie Spanton 

Consultant Editors Jeff Walker, 

Mark Smiddy, Phil South 

Office Cat Ginge 

Contributors Sam Uttlewood, Jon 

Bates, Pat Winstanley, Paul Andreas 

Overaa, Gary Whiteley, Peter 

Dankwerts, Jolyon Ralph, Stewart 

Russell 

Ad Manager Margaref Clarke 

Ad Sales Executive Shaun Lancaster 



Illustrators Jolyon Webb, Steve 
Noble, Kev Sutherland 
Photography Ashton James 
Ad Production Deborah Cook 
Production technicians Simon 
Windsor, Chris Stocker, Jerome Clough 
Publisher Greg Ingham 
Promotions Michele Harris 
Publishers' Assistant Tamara Word 
Circulation Director Sue Hartley 
Printer Thamesmouth Printing 
News Trade Distribution - 
UK: Future Publishing 0225 442244 
Worldwide: MMC Ltd 0483 21 1678 
© FUTURE PUBLISHING 1991 




Home of Britain's finest computer mag wnes. 

Amiga Shopper • 8000 Plus • PC Ptu* 

Amiga Format • ST Format 

New Computer Expret* • Your Sinclair 

Commodore Format • Sega Power 

Amiga Power • Amstrad Action 

PC Answers 



ISSUE FIVE 

ON SALE 
AUGUST 1 



EDITORIAL 

30 Monmouth Street, 
Bath BA1 2BW 
» 0225 442244 
Fax: 0225 446019 

We welcome written enquiries/ 
but regret that we cannot offer 
guidance information or advice 
on a personal basis, either by 
phone or post. Contributions 
from readers are welcomed, 
but material submitted for 
publication is accepted on the 
basis of full assignment of 
copyright to Future Publishing. 
Great care is taken to ensure 
what we publish is accurate, 
but we cannot accept liability 
for mistakes or misprints. No 
part of this magazine may be 
reproduced in any form 
without permission. 



•---• 



P ■ VPH*fH 1 



Please reserve/deliver me a copy of Amiga Shopper 

Name 

Address 



GUARANTEE YOUR COPY OF 

AMIGA SHOPPER BY RESERVING 

IT AT YOUR NEWSAGENT 

Don't miss out on issue five of Amiga Shopper. Every serious Amiga user in 
the country is trying to get their hands on this magazine and you don't want 
them to beat you to it. Over 1 00,000 Amiga Format readers saw the special 
preview issue and the first few issues sold out virtually instantly in many 
places. So, to guarantee your copy, either; 

• Make sure you remember to rush into your local newsagent and buy it on 
the morning of Thursday August 1 . 

• Fill in this form and give it to your friendly neighbourhood newsagent, 
who will make sure that it is reserved for you or even delivered to you. (Did 
you know that W H Smith and John Menzies will also save a copy of 
AMIGA SHOPPER for you?) 



TO THE NEWSAGENT - Amiga Shopper goes on sate on the first Thursday in the 
month. It Is published by Future Publishing and is available from your lo<al 
wholesaler. Please return this form to Kate Hodges, Future Publishing, 30 
Monmouth St, Bath Ml 2BW, to enter our free prize draw. 



ADVERTISING 

Advertising Manager 
Margaret Clarke, 

2nd Floor, Royner House, 
23 Higher Hillgate, 
Stockport SKI 3ER 
tr 061-474 7333 
Fax:061-476 3002 

Ad Sales Executive 
Shaun Lancaster, 

30 Monmouth Street, 
BathBAI 2BW 
tr 0225 442244 
Fax: 0225 446019 

SUBSCRIPTIONS 

The Old Barn, 
Somerton, 

Somerset TA 11 7PY 
tr 0458 7401 1 
Fax: 0458 74378 

NEXT MONTH 

We've got a sparkling issue in the 
pipeline for next month's Amiga 
Shopper, due out in just four short 
weeks time. 

Reviews already lined up for the 
next issue include Canon's remarkable 
bubblejet printer, a look at some 
freezer cartridges and the second part 
of our Superbase 4 review. 

We take a look at sound sampling 
in the music column, and check out 
some of the best devices. 

Also in the next issue, we return to 
hard drives to check out the new 
models which weren't available in our 
first look, and see how they compare 
to the ones we tested in issue 1 . 

And of course you will find all the 
regulars: comms, AMOS, video, DTP, 
graphics, AmigaDOS, programming, 
education, business, music: the 
combination which makes Amiga 
Shopper the best value Amiga 
magazine you can buy 



In your newsagents on 
Thursday August 1 , only 99p. 
You can't afford to miss it. 



ADVERTISERS 
INDEX 



1st Choice Leeds 28 

16 Bit Centre 48 

16 Bit Computers 67 

Almathera 78 

Alternative Image 67 

AMFAL 78 

Amiga Mouse 98 

Amiganuts 121 

ARK 91 

Axe Direct 101 

BBD Dust Covers 101 

BCS 103 

Best Prices 40 

Bitcon 71 

Blitterchips 125 

Byteback 30 

C&N 118 

Calco 71 

Capital Computers 13 

Club Amiga 93 

Crazy Joes 122 

Dataplex 88 

Date! 46,47 

Delta Pi 72 

Digicom 45 

Digita 61 

Dowlmg Computers 38. 39 

DTBS 91 

Ed Lib 126 

Electriclown 126 

Europress Software 17 

Evesham Micros 54, 55 

Gajits 101 

Galaxy 67 

GoldStar 121 

GPS 93 

Hart Micros 84 

Harwoods 9 

Hi Soft IBC 

Hobbyte 37 

Home Based Business 71 

ICPUG 110 

Intermediates IFC 

Kernow 84 

Kosmos 1 03 

KRT Video 71 

Ladbroke 112 

Manor Court 104 

MD Office Supplies 117 

Media Direct 68 

Media PD 111 

Merlin 4 

Micromail 20 

MJC Supplies 56 

New Age 103 

Official Secrets IFC 

Pazaz 98 

PLC 88 

PLS 98 

Postal PD 126 

Poste Haste 84 

Power Computing 25. 53, OBC 

Precision 33 

Redlaw 84 

Richards Development 72 

SCS 125 

Selec 78 

Soft Exchange 72 

Softmachine 104 

Star 101 

Start 128 

Supply Solutions 93 

Surface 64 

Telescan 110 

Tracey 98 

Trilogic 43 

Video Vault 91 

Virgo 88 

Warp 101 

We Serve 67 

,Zone Distribution 93 



130 



AMICjA SHOPPER • ISSUF 4 • AUGUST 1991 



HiSoft BASIC 



A BASIC Standard 

HiSoft BASIC is the answer to your program- 
ming prayers; a fast, interactive and easy-to-use 
68000 BASIC system conforming to the industry 
standard for the BASIC language. 

HiSoft BASIC is designed to be as compatible as 
possible with the AmigaBASIC interpreter, while 
offering you a friendlier, easier-to-use and 
infinitely more powerful language In addition it 
has many of the features of the world -standard 
Microsoft QuickBASIC, on the PC. 

Some of HiSoft BASIC'S features include: 



• Structured programming, using long IFs. 
multiline functions. QKZBEPEAT and 
procedures 

• Program line numbers are optional, and r : 
alphanumeric labels can be used 

• FuB recursion for procedures & functions, 
local variables and arrays as parameters 

• Five types of variables 

• Program size limited only by memory 

• Variable size limited only by memory 

• Integer and character constants 

• Compiles the majority of AmigaBASIC 
programs without change 



ProFlight 
takes off! 



ProFlight. the extremely accurate and flyable 
Tornado flight simulator from HiSoft, is now 
available for all the Amiga computers. 




First released on the Atari ST where H has won 
a high degree of critical acclaim from reviewers 
and users alike, ProFlight is not only one of the 
most technically realistic simulators around but 
it is also tremendous fun to fly. As you would 
expect, the Amiga version has much improved 
sound and graphics! 

You can fly peaceful reconnaissance missions or 
roar into attack after carefully planning your 
combat mission. ProFlight is supplied with a 
comprehensive, ring-bound flight manual. 



Full support of the Amiga is included as 
standard with extensive window, screen and 
graphics commands. Amiga libraries can also be 
accessed as if they were built-in statements 
allowing complete machine access. 

HiSoft BASIC includes full MENU support, with 
event trapping and powerful sprite routines, 
using the OBJECT keywords. 

Programs can execute in their own window(s) 
or use the CU window for minimum size. CU- 
type programs may be easily written and made 
resident since they are fully re-entrant. 

HiSoft BASIC is a no-limits language; string 
variables may be up to 16Mbytes in length and 
there are no limits on array sizes either (subject 
to available memory). Code generated is fully 
68010/020/030 compatible. 

Compiled programs have no run-time over- 
head; all compiled programs share an Amiga 
library, which may be distributed with programs 
without charge. 



Devpoc2 







Easy Assembly Language 

Devpac Amiga Version 2 is widely regarded as 
the most powerful, complete, assembly 
language development system for the Amiga. It 
incorporates an integrated editor/assembler/ 
linker/debugger, together with a stand-alone 
assembler and debugger and all the necessary 
include files and many examples. 



Extend 

An add-on package for HiSoft BASIC. Extend 
includes routines for handling IFF files, gadgets, 
sub-menus, sound. HAM mode and much 
more. It is supplied as a library for ease of use. 

Normally HiSoft BASIC costs £79 95 and Extend costs 
bul see the coupon below lor a very special otter 
lor the two packages together' 




Complete with extensive ring-bound manual 
detailing all aspects of the package, plus 
debugging strategies. Devpac is the choice for 
beginners and assembler experts alike. 

RRP is £59.95. but see the coupon below for a 
very special offer on this essential package. 



SASC5 



SAS Institute (the parent company of Lattice 
Inc.) has taken over the development and sales 
of the Lattice C 5 compiler for the Amiga and 
released a new version, 5. 10a. 

The major features of this latest version are: 

AmtgaDO support, {££ AKFXX support. 

Improved Wi<rkbencli usb <y perform 

;j/kv mi. ments, support i jned. 

automatic near to / C- - -style 

v read from 
variable an re 

We believe that these improvements and 
enhancements in this version establish SAS C5 
as the ultimate Amiga C compiler. The package 
includes 680x0 compiler, linker, screen editor, 
assembler, highly intelligent global optimiser, 
source level debugger, code profiler, librarian 
and a host of tools and examples. 

SAS C5 from HiSoft costs 
£229 (but see our special 
ofTer on the coupon) 
and includes full UK 
technical support, 
which is not 
available from 
other sources. 

■ 

Upgrades cost £34.95 (from version 5.0x). £79 
(from version 4.xx) or £99 (from version 3xx). 



: 
: 




Priority Order Form 

Yes, please rush me copy(ies) of 

i ") HiSoft BASIC & Extend (a 1 £59.95 
C HiSoft Devpac 2 & £39.95 
i SAS/Lattice C 5.10a & C199.00 
ProFlight Tornado Sim & £39.95 

Name: 
Address: 



**»■■ 









■ ■■»»'*■»»*»»• 



Post Code: 



"■MllftH* 



■ 



D / enclose a Cheque/Postal Orders 

I would like to pay by: 

Access/MasterCard/EuroCard etc. 
D Visa/TrustCard etc. 

Card No 

Expiry Date: Skjnetoe 



.-■*. 



All prices include UK VAT and postage within 

the United Kingdom. Goods will normally be 

despatched within 2 working days of 

receiving your order Call, write or fax for 

export prices. 

Please post this coupon to HiSoft at: 

The Old School. Greenfield, Bedtora 

MK45SDE UK 
Tel *-i4 525 718 18 f, Fj. . l-l S IS 713716 



Free ProFlight T-Shirt 
with every order! 

HiSoft 



High Quality Software 



! 



J 




POWER COMPUTING 



LOW 



- *; 



%'*% 



The NEW PC880B Power Drive A500 Internal Hard Disk S1&-. 




N E W 



Our newest drive now has the powerful Blitz Copier BUILT IN! 

Just look at the features 

• High spec 880K Floppy Drive • Blitz hardware copier built in (switchable) 

• Power Computing Anti-Click feature • Virus blocker built in (switchable) 

All thisfor only £65.00 inc VAT 

Blitz Amiga Memory Expansions 

Back-up your disks at lightning speed 

Copies from the internal to the external 
drive 

Backs-up an Amiga disk in around 40 
seconds 

Backs-up other format disks (Atari, PC) 

Copies up to three external drives at 
once 

Stops ALL external drives from clicking 

Contains Anti-virus switch! -prevents 
viruses from being written to the 
bootblock 




Works on Amiga 500 or 2000 £15 

erMouse £14.99 

e r Scanner 

£159 

Scan from 100-400 DPI • 

Simulate Grey Scale • 

IFF& Printer support • 

owerful Image Edit software • 

Crop, cut, paste, magnify, edit • 

zoom, flip, invert, & many more 

features 




1 5MB Expansion Board 

• Plugs easily into your Amiga 

• (kickstart 1.3andabove) 

• Simple internal fitting £79 

* Fully compatible with "Fatter 
Agnus"and1MBChipRAM 

512K RAM Card without clock £24 

512KRAMCardwithclock £29 



40MB Slimline Hard Drive 

• Compact high speed drive 

• Requires Amiga to beopenedfor 
simple internal fitting £299 

All trifle mtf»s acknowledged 




Amiga 500 Internal hard drive 

20MBformatted 

2" Hard drive 

High quality ICD interface 

Simpleplug-in fitting 



£359 



PC880 Power Drive 

• Isolating on/off switch £55 

• Thru'port for daisy chaining 

• No annoying click when drive is 
empty 

• 12 month warranty 

The only drive with 'Anti-click' 
Bewareof imitations 

A500 Replacement Internal Drive £49 

A500 Internal Anti-Click board £$.95 



Dual 3.5' Drive with power supply 



£99 95 




We have moved to larger premises. This 
will help production and allow us to 
fulfil orders even faster than before. In 
addition to an improved mail order 
service, we now provide a showroom 
where personal callers are welcome. 




POWER COMPUTING LTD 
Unit 8 Railton Road Woburn Road Industrial Estate Kempston Bedford MK42 7PN 

Tr 0234 843388 Fax 0234 840234 




U1 



= 33 



»- >* 






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n 1 



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ii 



$p«*lit*iiDni ire tubftct to thing* wiihout noiite 



All pr.ces include VAT and are subject to change
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